~~Rox POV~~

Best ways to deal with problems: ignoring them. At least that's' my philosophy. And if you can't ignore them, then try sleeping.

No sooner had Riku left, to go downstairs, had I decided to go to bed. I crawled into our shared ocean- I mean bed, the blue covers and pretty much all blue fabric covered up the fact that the bed was spring and box spring instead of water- but I was pleased to find my usual insomnia had run off on me. Because, yes, it did that from time to time.

~~Axel POV~~

There was no way I was going on some date with the little brat, I know I agreed but I mean, really? Money wouldn't really be a problem- it never was- I could just ask my father for that, he'd be happy to not be using it to bail me out so much so that he may just give me a shit ton more than I asked for.

"What're you thinking?" my comrade asked, I looked over at him while Demyx snored in the back seat, knocked out from his drinking.

"Ah, just about what that asshole said."

"About you dating Roxas?"

"Hanging out," I clarified, "And yeah."

"Well you have to," he didn't get very far before I cut him off.

"Not really- I could always just wait until my parents get back and when I'm plan free and then just bail on the kid." Zexion took his eyes off the road to give me a look.

"What?"

"You're seriously asking me what?" he didn't seemed thrilled with me, "Axel, you can't just keep being okay with your ass getting thrown in jail- yeah, it may only be for a night but then you're getting more and more court dates and soon they're just going to throw you in prison for a few months or years. What college- that you want to go to- is going to accept an ex-con?" he raised an eyebrow at me and all I could do was look back out the window, mumbling.

"Thanks for killing my buzz."

Zexion dropped me off at my ginormous house, it was way bigger than we needed even when my older sister was living with us, but with all the money my father made he wouldn't settle for less (only because he likes to shove his fortune in other people's faces). If you open the front door there's wide stairs with hallways that lead back on both sides- you can't see that though because it's dark and I'm pretty sure night vision for humans is sort of a myth .

Up the stairs, and all the way to the left was my room, my brothers room was right before mine and my sisters old room was just after mine. My parent's room was located on the other side of the stairs- my mother wanted to be as far away as possible from us. Kicking off my shoes and plugging my phone in was all I did before I passed out on my giant king sized bed, the fan and summer breeze making my room cool enough to sleep in.

~~Rox POV~~

This was bullcrap- at its finest, I finally get to sleep, finally am able to push all my thoughts away, finally able to actually get a restful sleep like most people do and Riku wakes me up. "Nuhhh," I groaned in my throat, Riku had just told me to wake up and turned the light on, I rolled over onto my stomach and brought my hands up to the sides of my face in the process and tried to welcome back sleep.

"Get up, you have to help me clean up," he ripped the blanket off me, that cruel, cruel, cruel man.

My arm relaxed and my hand fell on the pillow next to my head- otherwise known as Riku's pillow, I felt a hand clasp around my ankle and start pulling me down, squeezing the pillow in my fist I threw it blindly back at Riku, scurrying up the bed and away from him when he let go. "I was sleeping… go away…" I mumbled, he let out a sigh and I could just picture what he looked like.

"Yeah, and I wanna sleep- but I can't, so come help me."

I groaned again, "We can in the morning," I finally said, having found the blanket with my foot I hooked my ankle on it and bent my leg up so I could grab the blue fabric, covering my shoulders, "I'll help you then…" I added as I snuggled into the blanket.

He let out another sigh but I felt the bed dip as he sat on it, "Fuck… fine- in the morning, early," the dip was gone, "I gotta lock up." He opened the door and I assume he left, I didn't know if he came back up because as soon as it was quiet again I was out.

~~Axel POV~~

"Axel!" someone yelled over and over again, I cupped the pillow around my ears, but that didn't block out the woman's voice, she kept yelling and then I heard, "Lea, go wake Axel up," and then the patter of an eleven year old's feet getting closer and closer to my door.

My door opened and I could hear the evil plans forming in my younger brother's head, "Lea… if you so much as make a sound I am going to stuff you in a box and mail you to mom," and then I heard my door shut, I looked just to check and my brother wasn't in sight.

Lying there for a few more seconds I enjoyed my time of quiet- and then I could hear Lea yelling and moving around downstairs and quiet went out the window. Both yawning and groaning I stood up and left my room, walking to the bathroom just down the hall- taking my phone with me in the process even though I didn't bother to check it. My shirt smelt like alcohol and sweat so I quickly peeled that off and threw it in the hamper, my pants followed and I was only wearing boxers till I made it back to my room and was able to pull on thin pajama bottoms.

"Axel!" my sister yelled again.

"What do you want?" I whined, moping all the way to the island in our kitchen and sitting on a barstool.

"Oh you're up," Vanille smiled and I dropped my head against the counter- the echoing pain left with the coolness of the marble only to return when I felt a swat at the back of my head.

"Ehhh…" I whined again as my form of an ow.

"That's for what you said to Lea,"she started.

"It wasn't that bad," my head was still on the counter.

"You threatened to stuff a claustrophobic 11 year old in a box for a few days to see his mother," rolling my head to the side I looked at her to see her with her hand on her hip and that same look on her face till she turned and started to take care of whatever it was that she bought.

"We have a maid for all that shit," I mumbled, another swat to the head for swearing.

"Axel, you're 19- you shouldn't let the maid do all the work, and anyway- grow up! Do you want to be like mom and dad and have a maid?"

"No!" yelling in my head while I calmly spoke, "No, I thought that's why I had a sister," another smack to the head. "Sibling abuse!" I fake cried, "Hmph, it's not abuse if you deserve it and I'm not even hitting you hard, do you want me to?"

"Hell no," another swat, but I knew my sister packed one hell of a punch.

"Vanille," I mumbled,"It's too early…"

"No it's not."

"It's early to normal people," I tried to reason.

"Then you shouldn't have a problem." she were silent for a moment while Lea ran around the house doing whatever it was he was interested in, and then my sister started talking again, "Anyway… the maid has the day off today," since school was over she got Tuesday's off instead of the usual Saturdays.

"That's nice," I stood up, folding my arms from the chill of outside because Vanille had thought to open the doors to the patio that was just off the kitchen, and I hadn't bothered to put a shirt on.

Instead of just grabbing a shirt or something, I made my way my room and grabbed a thin hoodie and zipped it on before returning back downstairs to find my sister sitting outside on that patio I was talking about earlier.

I sat across from her in a somewhat reclined chair, "So how's your girlfriend doing?" she asked as she messed with the bit of fruit on her plate before taking a bite.

I rolled my eyes, "How should I know- it's not like I care enough to ask and she's never bothered to tell me," Vanille let out a sigh, she knew I had no feelings for Larxene but she figured the feelings would develop.

"Are you ever going to try to get the relationship to work?"

"Why? So Dad can gloat about how he's a matchmaker and how his honor roll son is hitting it off with the bitch who majored in everything?" I tried to look at the sun through the dark green awning, "It's not morning," I realized when I was able to look up and see the sun, I looked at my sister.

"You're right, it's not," she took a bite of a strawberry, "It's almost 4," at first I wanted to shoot out a comeback because she had picked on me to get me going earlier and then I realized that this was a very bothersome thing.

"Ah! What the fuck," I rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands as I tipped my head back, "Dammit!" I knew I wouldn't hear the end of it when my father heard about this, "Fuck," I drew out, sitting up a little and leaning forward before accepting my fate, "Dad's gonna kill me."

"Why?" she asked before yet another bite, apparently she didn't care enough at the moment to scold me for swearing.

Sliding down in the chair, I mumbled over my shoulder, "I was supposed to call colleges this morning and shit- because I hadn't made up my mind yet…" she nodded her head, she knew what I was talking about, she went through the same thing when she graduated.

"Well, which one do you like?"

"None! They're all stuck up rich kid schools."

"In case you haven't noticed, we're stuck up rich kid," she pointed at me with her fork.

"But they're worse!" I shot back. "The only college I want to go to is the one in town..."

"Then go," she easily reasoned.

"Can't," I started before taking on a stupid tone to match what I thought of my father's, "'It's not appropriate for my marks- the college is one only poor children with a lucky break and no future go to, it wouldn't set the right image' I'll show him what sets the right fucking image," I mumbled at the end, sliding down more in my chair.

"You'll have to figure out something, he'll probably call tonight just to see what happened."

"Yeah- don't remind me," I looked in her direction, and she understood what was going through my mind. Whenever it came to college our father always belittled Vanille about her choice, because instead of attempting to go to some fancy college, she chose to go to a community college and get degrees in random vocational classes. She wasn't sure about what she wanted to advance in, so she was doing everything she knew she wanted to, and our father hated that.

"You need to start planning for the future," our father would shout, "You're too old to have everything handed over to you," and when Vanille mentioned she was going to a community college out of state, he shouted at her, "Why're you throwing away your life? Suck it up, you can't have every you want."

Vanille stood up to take care of her dish while I was left in my thoughts, I might as well just had Riku call the cops on me, then I could tell my father I was in jail rather than lazy and slept in, fuck. I rubbed my eyes again, my sister came back out and sat down and I thought about asking her.

"Hey… Vanille?"

"Hnm?"

"I have a predicament for you," I sat up a bit.

"Shoot," I thought about how I wanted to say it.

"What if you got caught doing something… and this person was using it as blackmail, but this something isn't hardcore crime or anything but could still get someone in trouble, and they want you to do something you don't really want to- what would you do?"

She took a moment to reply, I was never very good at explaining things."Well… it depends on what the person's asking me to do."

"They want you to take this kid on a date- to hang out with him, once a week for ten weeks."

"And what're the details?"

"If the kid doesn't want to hang out or date anymore then the deal counts as completed, you can continue doing what the person is using as blackmail without them calling the cops, and the kid isn't bad looking at all or irritating but actually kind of amusing if they weren't such a brat."

She looked at me, "Well… what do you have to lose? You might as well hold up on the deal, it's not like you and Larxene are really even together though I still wouldn't tell her, she might rip this other person's head off." I smiled, yeah, I could see that- Larxene was two steps from killing me. She wouldn't let anyone else enjoy my charming personality.

"So, tell me about this kid," she smiled and I wondered if I should.

"First things first- the kids a boy," she acted like she already knew that..

"He's 17, he's got blond hair, blue eyes, a tongue ring that says 'Fuck You'," I laughed at the thought, "He's short but he's tiny, he loves all colors, his favorite food is grilled peanut butter and jelly or dry cereal, he works at a bar but he says drinking really isn't his thing. He doesn't do drugs, his birthday is September 13th, he's a Virgo, he has 3 piercings in one ear and 8 in the other, he lives above the bar he works at, and he loves cats with a passion…" when I finished talking I realized how much I knew about the kid.

"Sound's like you're already dating," my sister laughed.

"Oh ha-ha-ha," I mocked, "I was bored and kept asking him questions."

"Is he the one blackmailing you?"

"No… it's the owner, his roommate- I guess I made the little brat upset or something and he's taking it out on me."

"It doesn't seem too bad, and if it is you can always just chose to get in trouble," she smiled and stood up while I looked off in the distant- past our property, till I felt a smack hit my head.

"What the fu-."

"Bar? This kid works at a bar- unless you think I'm deaf then I know you were drinking and I have the right mind to beat you." I forgot my sister tends to catch on to things better than my parents- I have to watch what I say around her.

I heard something clatter inside and turned my head to look through the glass doors, "Lea!" my sister yelled, "What'd you do?"

"It wasn't' me!" my brother yelled back, and all I could do was smile, when it was just my sister and my brother everything was perfect- why couldn't it be like that all the time? I rested my eyes, trying to think of some lie to tell my father, or maybe I could just tell him the truth and just piss him off more, he wouldn't be back till next week anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rox POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Why Riku?" whining was a new approach, Riku was tugging the blanket away from me and taking with it all my warmth.

"It's morning, I gotta clean and you gotta help me," I grumbled, I remember telling him I would but I didn't want to- I didn't care if he got angry at me or if he was pissed at me for the rest of the week, I didn't want to get out of bed and I didn't want to do anything.

Shaking my head I buried my face in the bed.

"What?"

"No…" the bed dipped again.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to… I wanna stay warm and sleep…" he sighed again- if his hair wasn't already silver I'd be giving him grey hairs.

"I'll give you another hour- after that if you don't get up when I ask you do I'm going to drag you downstairs as you are," he stood up and left, and I didn't even bother to move, though I thought about it. I rolled my tongue to pinch my stud between my teeth out of habit before I fell back asleep.

Riku came back up and as he promised he dragged me downstairs and forced me to help him- persistent little… "Don't people normally hire a janitor or something to do this?" I asked as I very unceremoniously swiped the bottles that had been left once 2 o'clock hit, while Riku stood next to me, grabbing dishes to put in a bin.

"You're right," he walked away, leaving the bin next to me.

"What're you doing?"

He turned around, "You're hired."

"What, no!"

"Then quit bitching about it," he was still walking away now, "And anyway, I forgot to take stock…" I grumbled.

All the bottles and cans were now 'safely' in the recycling bin, and now I was going through to finish collecting the plates, bowls, and glasses, when I put the first two bins on a cart and rolled them back I was almost thankful Riku had hired Olette. She came in bitching and moaning that she needed a job but Riku didn't want to corrupt her so she's in charge of cooking and stuff, and she always cleans before she leaves.

Stacking the dishes on a tray I slid said sea green sea bottom dish holder into its element and back to the murky waters also known as the dishwasher. Looking over I saw Riku stressing about everything in the stock. I rolled my eyes, ever since Riku got the old man to give him his bar Riku hasn't been the same and he dragged me down with him and now neither of us have lives outside this bar. I kicked the counter before walking back into the other room with a rag to wipe down the tables.

Everything was set up- like we did every morning before sleep, and soon drunken idiots would waltz out after laughing in and the place would be a mess again. I jumped up and laid on the bar, the metal register pressed against the top of my head but I didn't have the energy to scoot down. I rested for a few minutes and then I felt a poking on my arm. I grumbled, "Riku… I wanna sleep."

"Are you guy's open?"

"What time is it?"

"It's noon," I groaned again as I rolled my feet off the counter and fell to my feet, my eyes still shut.

"Yepp, we're open," I mumbled, "What can I get you?" eyes still closed I rested my cheek against my hand and tried not to fall back asleep.

I got the man what he wanted then I made my way over to turn the sign outside on so people would know we were open. And the day continued- slowly getting better as time went by. The bar was so diverse, on one side there sat people who wanted to eat with a few beers, in the middle was people who wanted to drink with a few fries, and then on the far was people who wanted to drink and see half naked people (on certain nights), all had small dividers so people wouldn't have to deal with the next group, mostly the one at the end with the naked people.

And even though I couldn't get the little punk's eyes out of my head I put on my act, fake it till you make it!

The bar was closed and all cleaned up, 2 am once again. I was tired but Riku decided to play mother hen and make me food because I hadn't eaten yet, "You're going to starve yourself," Riku said from the kitchen, I was laying on the dirt, my arms fanned out as I stared at the ceiling.

"Nemehnemehnem," I mocked, "I'm not gonna starve... did you know every 3.6 seconds someone dies from hunger?" I heard him let out a sigh but he didn't say anything back.

"Here," he said and I looked up to see him holding a plate down for me.

"What is it?"

"What do you think?" I took the plate and looked at the grilled sandwich.

"Oooo," I said, instantly picking it apart and eating. I could eat grilled peanut butter and jelly all day. "

I don't see how you can eat that," Riku said as he sat on the couch, looking at me.

"What? It's delicious, you like it too."

"I know I like it, but that's all you eat," when I shook my head, he added, "And sometimes cereal, dry. " once I got done chewing what was in my mouth I stuck my tongue out.

"What's your point?"

"Normal people would get tired of the taste for one and for two: it's unhealthy. All you've eaten for the past 7 years I've known you is dry cereal, those cooked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and sometimes, sometimes, you'll eat an apple or something. It's no wonder you're so tiny and your growth is stunted, it's probably why you get sick so much too."

"Uh-huh," I didn't really care, I was too busy eating my delicious and warm sandwich. I peeled it into smaller pieces before eating it, trying to make it last as long as I could. The peanut-butter and bread was stuck to the roof my mouth and I was trying to use my tongue ring to scrape it off.

"Roxas!" looking up from my sandwich I saw Riku looking closer, "Where you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, I heard you."

"Then what'd I say?"

"About eating the same food all the time and how it's bad," I quickly mumbled out, my sandwich was gone now.

"Nice try- but that's what I was talking about earlier." My bad, I laid back down and waited for him to talk, "I was wondering if we could get someone to cover the bar so we could visit mom," I couldn't help but smile.

"We should!"

He chuckled, "Yeah, but I don't trust anyone around here to..."

"What about Olette?"

"Ehh… no- she'd have to cook and she doesn't know the difference between a Cape Codder and a Gin and Tonic." That was pretty much the only person Riku trusted that worked for him.

We decided to end the conversation and think about it some other time and just get some sleep. Riku had no free time because he decided to run the bar but he decided I couldn't have any either, not like I can complain much though. It's not like I really did anything to begin with. Now I have a bunch of money and nothing to spend it on because I never go anywhere. And I hate this.

I hate the fact that I'm stuck in the flat, or the bar, at all hours of the day. And its never bothered me before, but all I can think about is how I am wasting away to this. Every day is the same and will be till something stopped Riku from owning it or stopped us from being friends. The worst was that now everywhere I looked I could feel the redhead's eyes on me, giving me that same 'you're worthless' look and I couldn't get away from it. The little punk would forever be stuck in my head and I didn't even know his name. Not that I wanted to learn it, I wanted to go back to when I didn't give a crap about wasting away, when I didn't feel so worthless all the time, but hey- the feeling would probably be gone in a few days like it always did.

And just like I thought, by the end of the week the feeling was hidden, it never crossed my mind and I could go back to being the nerd full of random facts that annoyed the crap out of Riku and be the dare devil I was deep down and scare the crap out of Riku even more. I really would be the death of Riku, but the thought made me smile.

It was the typical crowd for a Friday night, a lot of people didn't have to work or do anything on Saturdays so the bar was always hectic, the regulars came and I was able to play my part so they'd give me a five dollar bill so I could buy a soda. I borrowed a lot of money because I had all my checks and stuff stashed in our flat. People always came to me to tell me I owed them money and the only time they'd see that money was if they asked right after I cashed my check.

Then I saw what I really wasn't in the mood for, a redhead walked in, it wasn't even 4 yet, the last time he bothered to show up it was late because his ID was crappy, but he must not have cared this time around. I was currently sitting on the bar by the register, where no one was allowed to sit next to. Riku told me a million times not sit on the counter but I always pushed it off with, "It's not hurting anyone," then I'd bother the person next to me, "Does me sitting here bother you?" they would most times say no, sometimes hit on me, other times tell me yes, and then I'd hit on them.

But Riku hadn't said anything yet today about it and while I was drinking my soda from the bottle I watched as the redhead walked closer to me, "Roxas…" his voice was hesitant but deeper, I noticed he sounded a bit different when he wasn't on the verge of being drunk.

"Yeah?" I forced on my friendly face.

"Um… listen…" he scratched the back of his head while looking down crookedly, "I was wondering if you'd go hang out with me… see a movie or some shit."

My jaw dropped a little, of course I wanted to! But instead I smiled, "Oh my, has the charming little punk thought to have mercy on me? Has he decided to grace me with his presence for the afternoon- to what do I owe such a pleasure?"

He seemed pissed when I said that but it just made my heart smile more, "Roxas!" I felt a rag hit the side of my head, I brought my shoulder up to shield away.

"What?" I shortly laughed out, Riku looked rather serious though.

"Why're you being a pest?"

"Because isn't that what I am?" I questioned, looking between Riku and the little punk.

"Stop being a brat, yes or no?" man, his temper was almost as short as Riku's.

"Hmm… you asked when I'm in the middle of my shift if I would go out of my way to spend time with a little punk I don't even know the name of… do I even have to explain further why I'd say no?"

"Roxas, just go."

"What?"

"You can have the rest of the day off, go out."

"Why you throwing me away Riku?" I didn't like that he wasn't supporting me in this, Riku supported me in almost everything.

"I'm not throwing you away… you haven't left this place in months, this seems like a good chance to take."

I stared at him till he hit me with the rag again while yelling, "Go!"

"Fine, fine, fine, I'll go," I hopped off the counter where I was at eye level with the punk but now I was shorter, I turned to look at him, "Oh but one thing..."

"Huh, what?"

"I don't like swearing," the punk seemed surprised but through his surprise nodded his head.

"I gotta change first… come on…" I mumbled.

Up the tongue, I barely managed to only stub my toe a bit but I didn't fall so I hadn't completely showed my incompetence yet, I questioned the redhead. "So what do you want?"

Pushing open the door I unhooked my busboy belt and set it on the floor to the side as I continued to walk all the way to mine and Riku's bedroom. The punk followed me all the way like a puppy. Grabbing a pair of white pants, my favorite because they're weren't just plain white pants.

The pants were obviously white, but a little over a half of one of the pant legs was a black and white plaid and it had straps that hung down from the first belt loops in the front- like other cliché Tripp pants- and one strap (the one on the side that had the plaid pant leg) was just white, while the other strap was plaid. They hung to almost my knee on their way to curve up and hook together on the center belt loop in the back. I grabbed a simple white button up shirt, the little punk caught my drift and walked away so I could change.

Rolling the sleeves up past my elbows so I could show off my black fishnet that I never took off, but instead always stayed pulled up to my elbow, once the fabric was all on I found my black and white checkered converses, still in my discarded work pants, and slid them back on. I loved my monochrome-ses, that's what I had named them because I'm unoriginal and just combined monochrome with the end of converses. Pulling my locket out I wondered if I wanted it above my shirt or below but decided to go with above, when I walked out I saw the little punk messing with something, so I watched him for a few seconds.

"Huh, oh, ready?" he said when he realized me, I nodded my head.

As we started our descent down the tongue I had another grave encounter, my butt grazed the stairs but I was able to move quicker down the stairs and push my momentum forward so instead of falling on my butt I raced down the tongue and almost face planted the wall. I didn't look back at the punk till we were walking on the bald floor.

"You okay."

"Score zero for tongue, score f-u for Roxas," I smiled, the tongue didn't win this time, the score was definitely not zero for it but every experience reset the score- but I still managed to almost always lose.

"You're not going to fall again… are you?"

"On a bald floor? No," I shook my head just to prove my point even though I wasn't looking back at him. I realized I was pretty much racing towards the door, when we got outside I took a deep breath and looked around.

"Hey… you uh… are you on drugs?"

"What?" I was a little shocked, "I don't do drugs."

"Oh, yeah, you said that… you just called the floor bald and almost fell on your ass from your tongue..." he loooked as though he was on the fence about either being extremely happy, or extremely nervous.

"Don't swear, and it wasn't an actual tongue you tard, the stairs are the tongue, and would you say the floor had hair because then I'd question your sanity."

I heard him chuckle, "Kid, you've got something wrong in your head."

"My head is perfectly fine and I'd be in your best interest not to associate with my sanity," I smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Axel POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I knew the kid was weird but so far he's a lot weirder than I'd like to admit, the little brat keeps giving fucked up answers and he hates swearing? What the fuck kind of shit is that? We started walking down the sidewalk and I noticed there were these things of cement that stick up from the sidewalk like poles near the edge as if to block off any cars or vehicles from crashing and hitting people on the sidewalk. Anyway I zoned out for a second at the stores we passed and I looked over to not see Roxas anywhere, "What the," I turned around, trying to find the blond, he was on my watch not even five minutes and I lost the kid.

And as soon as I turned around I found him. You know those cement poles I was talking about, well they come up to about my waist and this little brat was standing on one, and then to my horror he started to jump from one to the next, "Holy shit kid- haven't you ever watched TV, that shit always goes wrong," I wanted to pull him off of the poles but he jumped on them past me.

"Stop," he jumped, "Swearing!" he jumped again and stayed still, his arms flailing around in circles as he bent at the waist leaning dangerously far forward, I could just see this kid hitting the cement head first but he stood up straight instead and turned to look at me.

"And that's on TV, for one: I hate TV, for two: that's on TV and I'm clearly not," he gestured to his whole body, "And three: did you know the average American child has seen over 11,000 murders on TV by the time they're 14?"

He was hopping off again before I could even think of something to say back, my mind raced with questions but mostly, "What the fuck?" I decided he was going to do what he was going to do and the poles would run out soon so I walked on the side walk with my hands in my pockets.

"You're gonna hurt yourself." my voice was casual, but this kid was really starting to worry me.

"No pain no gain," I shook my head and looked up at him.

"Fine- you're going to kill yourself."

"No I won't, and stop talking to me and maybe I can cut those chances down by keeping my concentration."

Well, for the next 9 dates I knew this kid sure as hell wasn't going to be hard to entertain.

"This is supposed to be us hanging out, ya know, talking is kind of something that goes with it, unless you're deaf or something..."

"Assuming I can hear everything you keep mumbling under your breath, about me being a messed up kid and what not, then I'm not deaf."

He stopped for a second and looked at me, "I'm just excited…" he finally mumbled, looking down like it was a bad thing, and of course that made me feel a little like an asshole.

"Riku said you hadn't been outside in months, why's that?"

He looked at me before looking off to the side, "Oh wouldn't you like to know," he jumped down, and walked a little closer to me so we could continue walking down the sidewalk, "So what do you have planned Mystery Man?"

"I have a name, it's Axel."

"Ehh… I think I like Mystery Man more…" slowly I nodded my head; this kid was weird as fuck.

"And I don't' really have anything planned, I'd figure you'd want to do something…"

"Can you do a cartwheel?" he asked out of nowhere, I shook my head, I hated to admit it but his randomness was a little intimidating.

"Uh, I don't think I can…"

"Have you ever tried?"

"No."

And somehow we ended up at the park so he could show me how to do a cartwheel, because after the first time he did it on the sidewalk and he asked me to do it I told him hell no and then added that I wasn't going to do it on a sidewalk.

Great going Axel, I mumbled, I didn't want to try yet, I told the kid, so I sat on the grass while he tried to see how many cartwheels he could do without touching the ground with his hands and I gotta admit, the kid looked kind of cool.

He told me he wanted me to try now, "I don't want to."

"I didn't want to come out today, now it's your turn," he was a little out of breath.

"I don't know how to do a cartwheel," I added.

"That's why I'm going to show you," he had a large smile on his face.

"How is you showing me going to teach me how to do it."

"Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that you aren't some little prick that's so brain dead from Daddy's money that you can still pick up things even when dear Mommy isn't around to hold your hand." His smile was the same but I was about ready to punch his lights out.

"At least I have parents," though they were nothing to brag about.

"Are you calling me a test-tube baby?" he pulled up his shirt to show a belly button, "I'm pretty sure I wrecked someone's vag the same way you did."

Not only his language threw me off but the small tattoo on his hip bone did.

It was a black heart with something red crossing over it but the bottom looked like an upside down Fleur-de-lis, I didn't bother to question it though. And instead kept the conversation up, I wanted this kid to hate me, right? "You know what I meant."

"How do I know what you're meaning?" he crossed his arms.

"Well, with all that random crap floating around in your head I figured you might have some knowledge about how to read minds, or maybe read between the lines."

"Yeah, that's one I haven't quite gotten down yet, I can get in some people's heads, but they have to have a certain level of IQ that separates them from the idiots, you lack that."

Standing up I looked at him.

"What the fuck is your problem?" I finally asked, he still had a small smile on his face.

"I don't have a problem with you," he said simply.

"Yeah and I'm fucking Santa Clause," I noticed every time I swore his smile faltered, but he didn't stop being an asshole.

"You got the colors to match, so maybe that's it."

"What's it?"

"You're a wanna be Santa Clause," he started laughing, "Didn't Mommy and Daddy break the tragic news yet, he's not real," he kept laughing and I wanted to smack him upside the head.

"You're such…" I started but he instantly stopped laughing and the smile on his face was gone for a second.

"I'm such a many-many-things, I know." He turned around and started walking, I watched as he walked towards the bar but turned and ran to the side, I had no idea why he was running and then I saw him almost running up to the short wall that prevented people from going over and falling into the river. But Roxas was running at it and brought his hands up to propel him up and over the wall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rox POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't want to go back, so I quietly dragged my feet, I knew how I was acting but I couldn't stop myself- I was acting like an idiot with ADHD and it wasn't how I actually acted. Looking to my side I saw a brick wall, it was on a bridge, so I knew there was a drop off on the other side, I quickly turned and ran toward the wall. It was obvious Axel didn't want anything to do with me anymore, but Riku didn't know that yet, so I could stay out for a little while longer without Riku asking too many questions.

Why did I act like this? Things just flowed out of my mouth and it's like I could never control my voice box, I didn't even know where the thoughts were coming from. Being around people made me feel uneasy, and I always tried to make it better by talking, but that only made it worse. Why did I make things worse?

My father never came around for that simple reason, I annoy him too much… maybe if he was around more than it wouldn't be awkward between us… I had Riku's mom though, and she understood, she was one of the only people I didn't feel awkward around, I even felt strange around Riku most of the time, but Riku's mom was nice, and she understood…

I pushed myself up on the wall, but before I could even think about what I was doing, something wrapped around my middle and my skin left the wall.

"What the hell are you doing?" I was spun around, and the things that wrapped around me now let go to spin me around, pushing me back in the process.

I looked up to see big green eyes staring at me in shock, Axel opened his mouth to speak to me, but I cut him off, "I was just going to sit on the wall…" I looked down, walking away, "I got to get back to work…"

"Roxas," I shouldn't've, but I ran when I heard his voice.

I couldn't handle anymore of people today.

So I tried to upload this earlier, and for some reason it uploaded as a giant blob with no 'enter's, and I was too irritated to fix it. But I think it was just FanFiction, because now it's working just fine, and last time I couldn't bold anything or do anything like that... Sorry this took so long.

Thanks for the reviews, faves, and follows :3

Uploaded: April 25, 2014