~~Rox POV~~

I had no idea what Axel was doing...

He come to my front door, kissed me, and pulled me to his car with him. Now he was silent sitting behind the wheel as he intently stared at the road ahead of him, as if the passing scenery was suddenly something new. Since when was Axel ever this quiet? If anything he usually will give me a glance every once and a while, but nothing... he was stuck in his own little world.

The street lights were bright, but when we pulled into the parking lot, we were out of reach of the constructed light poles. Axel opened his car door without a word, walking to the small gazebo like area in front of us, and you think for a park it would be better lit, but of course not. I wanted to stay in the car, but I had a feeling he wanted me to follow him. No sooner had I joined him in the small enclosure and it begun to rain, and not a light sprinkle, but a heavy downpour.

I finally found my voice, I was tired of waiting for him to speak, "What's wrong Axel?"

"Everything!" He screamed, his back still to me, but that didn't take the venomous tone out of his voice. "My father is the fucking devil," his hands made their way into his hair, and I could tell he was more than just a little angry.

"Why did he 'ask' me to leave?" I tried to steer the conversation, I wanted to know the answer and I had a feeling it was relevant.

"Because," he turned around to look at me, "He's worried about how it would make Larxene look if anyone saw the two of us hanging out. He's mad because I have a girlfriend, but I'm insulting her by the way I look at you, because apparently it could ruin Larxene's image if anyone were to know that I have a crush on you while I'm in a 'relationship' with her." He was shaking his head like he didn't understand the world.

There were questions I wanted to ask, but there wasn't a way that I could get them to come out, I wanted to listen to everything he was going to say first. The kiss still lingered on my lips though...

"My father told me, he 'forbids' me to ever speak to you again," he took a seat next to me, but still didn't look in my direction.

"He can't do that," I tried to comfort him, but it didn't help.

"Yeah he can, he's great at lying and twisting words so he gets what he wants..."

My mouth opened, but before I could get any words out, Axel stood up, talking as he stepped away from me.

"I have to tell you... tell you a story..." he sounded nervous... I didn't like that. Nervous and Axel did not mix, I was so used to hearing the cocky and confident tone from him, and the longer he was quiet, the more I began to catch his nerves.

"Okay..." I said after the few minutes of silence, hoping it would fuel him to speak and tell his tale.

"Just... hear me out..." he glimpsed over his shoulder before taking a deep breath. "So there was this kid... this kid... well, he was an idiot. He did stupid things just because it was the only way he felt free, if he was defiant and full of attitude. He decided to go to this new bar on his birthday, with a couple of his friends... The bar owner figured it out that he was underage, and instead of calling the cops, he decided to offer blackmail instead...

"He said all this shit, and the more he talked, the more he added on. But," he took a deep breath, "The whole point was to lead on this kid. Not lead him on... more of be a friend to him, and get him to get out more and experience life..."

There was another long pause and the longer the silence continued, the more I realized I was starting to not like his story.

"Well... at first, the kid was weird," he chuckled, "Definitely weird, but the more time this kid spent with the other one, the less weird he seemed, and the more... unique he became. It was weird.. for this kid. He'd never felt like he had before, and it was amazing. He began to feel free and capable of anything just because of the friend he was forced to make. He realized he didn't have to be dark and... evil... he could be light and carefree, just like his new friend... And then, one day, it just hit this kid like a ton of fucking bricks... he didn't like the kid as a friend, he liked him a lot more than that, but he didn't know how to act, because, well... he'd never really cared about anyone else before..."

"I don't think I like this story..." if he was trying to confess his feelings to me, that he liked me more than a friend, it was lost under the before hand knowledge that the whole thing was only set up by Riku. Axel only hung out with me because he was afraid of the criminal charges, he only did it because of Riku... which meant all of this could be because of Riku too... Why was I always such an idiot?

He stayed silent but I really wished he would say something, anything, anything to get the pounding in my ears to stop.

"If..." I was going to make him talk... or try to at least. "If it was all just a set up, why did you kiss me?"

~~Ax POV~~

What was I doing? Was I really trying to confess my feelings to Roxas like this?

My father seeped back into my head, his words still ringing in my head.

"I forbid you to see that boy again."

I shook the memory away, it wasn't hard to disobey my father, but he knew how to ruin everything. The more we fought about it, the more he yelled about how he'd make my life a living Hell... which wouldn't have been hard, because at that moment he was threatening me that he was going to call the cops if I saw Roxas, and with all the holes I'd punched in the walls at that moment, I definitely have to at least spend the night in jail.

He fucking knew what he was doing, he was being overly dramatic because he knew I'd react, and when I reacted, he was going to use it against me to put me away... he's a fucking psychopath.

Roxas' question rang through me head... what way I going to tell him?

The truth? That I'd been thinking about kissing him for a few days now, that I really did like him, and I really did want to spend time with him?

Even though I knew there was a chance I could never be actually able to live peacefully with him, that my father could ruin our chance before we could ruin it for ourselves?

Roxas was the only one to ever seem to give a genuine damn about me, was I really going to return the favor by telling him, 'oh yeah, I like you, but my fathers crazy so we won't work out,'?

This kid means more to me than I ever thought a person could... he means more to me than Demyx, or my sister and brother. Which is shitty to say, but it's true...

Against everything in my brain, I had to tell Roxas the truth...

"I like you Roxas... a lot..." I looked over my shoulder to see the tears in his eyes, but I quickly turned back around. I'd made him cry, and why the Hell shouldn't he be crying, he just found out we'd been set up but only one of us knew about it...

With his voice sounding strong, he finally answered me. "Does that mean we're going to be some cliché romance then? Two complete opposites hooking up all thanks to an unknowing third party...?"

I had to be honest... I needed to be...

"No," my eyes began to burn, "I don't know if we'll ever see each other again..."

The tears fell without my permission. I ducked out from under the gazebo and walked away in the rain, letting my tears mix with the heavy downpour.

Uploaded: October 31st, 2017