There was no reason for him to be surprised. He wasn't, really, but that didn't mean he wasn't unhappy about it anyway. Someone else had taken an interest in Roxas and Axel was driving himself crazy thinking about it. Even worse, it was that Hayner kid and while Axel didn't know the junior particularly well, he'd been going to the same school as him long enough to know that Hayner would be good to Roxas. That wasn't something he wanted to admit, but he knew that Hayner was probably a better match for the blond sophomore than Axel was. Really, they were closer in age and the junior was carefree and energetic, if not a little moody at times. And it seemed he'd already made a good impression with Roxas, judging by the way he'd smiled at the older boy.

Face it, Axe. Hayner's better for Roxas than you are. He's better by a long shot. Think about it. Larxene would leave him alone if he started seeing someone, which means she'd stop bugging you so much, too. Hayner probably hasn't gotten him in trouble for sending notes, and I really doubt he got drunk and tried to make out with him at a party.

The junior seemed to have every advantage over Axel at this point, even though he'd made considerable progress with becoming Roxas' friend lately. His brain told him it was for the best, his stomach was pissed about it. And his heart may as well have been a child with his hands over his ears going, "Lalala I can't hear you!" He didn't want to admit that it would be better for everyone if Roxas chose Hayner. Well, better for everyone except the immature creature his heart had become.

"Axel, quit your sulking before I throw my chemistry book at you." Zexion appeared beside the redhead's bed, his hands on his hips as he scowled at his roommate. "What are you so moody about? It's winter break—usually you're at a party by now."

He regarded the blue-haired boy for a moment before turning onto his side so his back was to him. "Nothing."

Only a second passed before something large and hard made contact with his hip—apparently, Zexion hadn't been kidding about using his chemistry book as a weapon—but Axel merely winced a little. It hadn't been a very hard hit and it certainly wasn't enough to get him to admit out loud how upset he was about this whole Hayner-Roxas-thing.

"Axel."

"What?"

"If you think I'm going to drop this after the way you forced me to tell you about Demyx, then you're a moron. Now roll over and tell the truth." Without bothering to wait for permission, Zexion sat on the bed and smacked his roommate's thigh to get him to scoot over and make room. "Spill it."

Sighing and now more than a little annoyed, Axel sat up and gave his roommate an irritated look. "You're just going to call me an idiot."

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do. Because you're you, and up until you started to like Demyx, you thought the entire range of human emotion was nothing more than a waste of time and a distraction from your studies. Unless that kid has completely turned you around, you're just going to tell me I'm being stupid for getting worked up about it."

To be fair, both seniors knew he was right about how Zexion had viewed crushes and, well, emotions up until he'd fallen for Demyx. But by no means did that deter the blue-haired senior. "I don't care. I want to know why you're upset."

"God, you're such a—fine." Slouching against his headboard, Axel crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his lap. "Roxas might like someone else."

Zexion looked mildly surprised, which Axel hadn't been expecting. "Who?"

"That junior, Hayner."

"Oh." Understanding lit the blue eye that was visible. "Is that why you didn't want to go over to their room and watch movies? You were too jealous?"

"I didn't want to have to sit there and watch them flirt."

"Axel, they didn't flirt. At all."

Disbelief and hope came together in a strange mixture in Axel's stomach and he sat up a little straighter. "They didn't?"

"No. They joked around and I'd believe they'll be good friends. Hayner was a little bit flirtatious a few times but Roxas didn't flirt back and he seemed embarrassed about it. Besides, wouldn't it have made more sense for you to go and make it clear that you like Roxas? It might have made Hayner back off." Zexion tried to sound as comforting and reassuring as he could because he knew that if he didn't cheer Axel up now, the redhead would spend his entire winter break holed up in their room worrying about this.

It was quiet as Axel considered what his roommate had said, then he began nodding and sat up all the way. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Roxas knows I like him and we're working things out. I shouldn't be worried about Hayner getting in the way of things."

The other senior allowed himself a small grin. "Exactly. Besides, you're a senior, and this other kid's only a junior. Heaven knows you have plenty of experience with dating so you could probably be a better boyfriend than him, and it's not like you aren't capable of charming your way into Roxas' heart now that you've actually become friends with him." Maybe it was a little much to pump Axel's ego up the way he was, but the redhead needed all the support he could get after the trouble he'd already gone through in order to gain Roxas' affections. If he hadn't known how far Miss Larxene was willing to go to get her way and how much Axel liked the sophomore, Zexion might have decided Roxas wasn't worth Axel's time. As it was, he got the feeling that Axel might need a little extra push if he was going to make significant progress with the blond before graduation in the spring.

"Right! As long as that bitch Larxene doesn't convince him I worship the devil or something, winning him over should be easy." His mood now lifted by tenfold, Axel stretched out on his bed and tucked his hands under his head. "Thanks for the pep talk, Zex."

"No problem." His mission accomplished, Zexion got up and went back to his own side of the room to continue packing for the flight home in the morning.

Students could either stay on campus for the three weeks of winter break or go home—Zexion was going home for reasons he refused to share. Axel had, as usual, opted to stay on campus rather than spend three weeks with his parents.

"You going over to Demyx's tonight?"

Zexion didn't look up. "Yes, and I'm sure he'll try to convince me to stay for break, but I can't. Regardless, I do want to spend time with him before I leave."

A smirk took over Axel's features. "That's good. Just don't do anything I wouldn't do."

It was not hard to turn around and throw the shoe he was holding at his roommate, but he managed to resist. Still, he disliked the suggestive tone Axel had used—it wasn't as if Zexion had said anything that hinted at plans to sleep with the junior. And even if that had been his intent, it wasn't any of Axel's business. Not that he had plans to sleep with Demyx any time in the near future. They hadn't been dating long enough and besides, the blond was far too innocent. Just thinking about…that…made Zexion feel dirty.

"We both know there's little chance of me ever being that careless," he replied in as calm a tone as he could, and the redhead across the room laughed.

"I dunno, Zex. That kid's bringing out a side of you that might get carried away."

"I highly doubt that." But he knew Axel was at least partially right about that. Demyx was certainly changing the way he looked at things. That didn't mean he was going to get carried away, though.

Well, maybe he'd be extra careful, just in case.

XXX

Namine tucked her hair behind her ear as she leaned down to peer over Kairi's shoulder at the screen of the redhead's laptop. "What are you working on? It's Winter Break—we don't have any homework."

A giggle escaped the typing teenager. "This isn't homework. It's more important than that."

Her curiosity getting the best of her, Namine allowed herself to read a few lines. The moment she realized what it was that Kairi was writing, her face turned red and her mouth fell open slightly.

"Kairi! Why are you writing that?!"

"Because I'm going to email it to him. Sort of like a Christmas present."

The blonde couldn't believe how reckless her cousin was behaving. "But, he's a teacher! You could get in trouble! You could get expelled, and your mom and dad—"

"I'm not going to get expelled," Kairi cut her off, "because he's not going to turn me in. Trust me, he'd rather be fired than admit I've been writing these things about him."

"'Been writing'? Kairi, how many of these have you given him?"

Kairi shrugged. "Only a couple. The first one was just to test him. Now, it's for fun."

"How on earth is this fun?"

Turning in her chair, Kairi looked up at her blonde cousin with a surprisingly serious expression. "It's fun because I've finally found a challenge, Mi-Mi. Everyone knows how much I like to flirt. But I'm tired of these silly boys who trip all over themselves to make me smile just because they think I'm pretty and they want to sleep with me."

"But won't writing this stuff make him want to sleep with you?" Namine gestured at the laptop on Kairi's desk, frowning. "How is this any different from flirting with boys our age?"

"Because he's not our age, and I know that he isn't willing to risk his job just to have sex with a student," Kairi explained, her gaze shifting from Namine to her laptop. "If he decides to try to have a relationship with me despite the fact that we could both get in trouble, then it's because of more than pure physical attraction." She looked up at Namine again and smiled a little. "I'm tired of boys, Mi-Mi. If I'm going to date someone, I want it to be something long term, not just a few weeks. Professor Luxord is a lot older than us and maybe that bugs some people but I like him. He's handsome and intelligent and even a little arrogant, yet somehow I manage to get him flustered. I know you understand, Mi-Mi. Don't tell me you don't."

Namine regarded her cousin for a moment then sighed quietly. "Yeah, I understand." She cast a dubious glance at the computer screen. "But I still don't think it's a good idea to send him that."

"Maybe it isn't a good idea. But I'm doing it anyway."

As Kairi went back to typing away on her laptop, Namine resigned herself to be prepared to deal with the potential consequences of the other girl's actions. There could be hell over that email, but if Kairi was willing to risk expulsion then she obviously meant business in her pursuit of their history professor. In any case, Namine was in no position to judge her.

XXX

They were cuter than he'd expected. He almost didn't want to wake them, but it was past noon and if they didn't get up soon then their stomachs would wake them with unpleasant hunger pains. Really, he would be doing them a favor. Right?

Hesitating, Roxas stood beside his twin's bed and looked down at the two figures huddled together under the blankets. Riku had ended up staying over after movies and cocoa the night before and he and Sora had stayed up later than anyone else, which meant they were sleeping in a lot later than everyone else, too. Unsurprisingly, they'd opted to share Sora's bed and consequently Roxas was the one to wake up and find them all but wrapped around each other. They hadn't done anything—he definitely would have woken up and been decidedly grumpy about it—but they were certainly cuddling to the point of fusing their bodies together. He was actually having a little bit of trouble telling whose limbs were whose. And hell, it was one of the cutest things he'd ever seen.

Sora was curled up almost into a ball, his head tucked under Riku's chin as the older boy held him protectively. They had their arms wrapped around each other and the blankets were tangled around them so they probably couldn't have moved away from each other without actually getting up. Roxas really didn't want to disturb them—they were still sound asleep and really they'd be embarrassed about sleeping the way they were—but he couldn't shake the feeling that he should before they slept until evening and completely ruined their sleep schedules.

His mind made up, Roxas took a breath before reaching out to touch his twin's shoulder. "Sora, wake up. You've been sleeping all day."

The only response he got was a few mumbled words that sounded vaguely like, "I don't want any," before the brunet sighed and attempted to shift even closer to the boy sleeping beside him. On the inside, Roxas cooed a little and wished he could just let them sleep like that forever. But there was no way he was going to show that or let it get in the way of doing what he needed to do.

"Sora." He gripped his brother's shoulder and shook him gently. "I mean it, it's time to get up. You can't sleep the whole day away."

This time, one of Sora's blue eyes cracked open to peer up at him. "Wha' time izzit?"

"Almost two in the afternoon. How late did you guys stay up?"

Shifting, Sora yawned and stretched, apparently oblivious about being so close to Riku. "I dunno…late…"

Roxas had to hold back a grin when Riku let out a disgruntled mutter and shoved his head into Sora's chest, making the brunet blush and awkwardly stroke the older boy's hair.

"I don't think Riku's ready to get up yet," he told his blond twin, looking embarrassed.

"Too bad. It's time to get up, but I'll let you take care of waking your grumpy cuddle buddy."

That made Sora's face turn a dark shade of red, but he didn't argue. There was little point in denying that he and Riku had in fact become cuddle buddies, as embarrassing as that sounded, and he found himself wanting to simply go back to sleep once Roxas had moved away. After all, Riku still seemed tired and he looked so peaceful while he was asleep. Smiling a little, Sora brushed his fingers through the older boy's bangs then over his cheek, not noticing the way Riku's lips twitched as if he was trying not to smile.

"We really should get up, Riku." Despite the words, Sora was whispering as he settled comfortably and curled himself into the still-sleeping athlete; he felt Riku's arms tighten around him just slightly and chuckled. "Roxas'll get mad if we stay in bed all day."

"…don't care…"

It was kind of adorable and Sora couldn't believe he'd never seen this side of his friend before. As unexpected as it was for Riku to suddenly act the way he was, Sora was glad he got to see him like this. He liked that Riku trusted him enough to let his guard down, even if it was just because of how tired he was.

Throwing caution to the winds, the brunet placed a hand on his friend's cheek then pressed a light kiss to Riku's forehead. "Come on, sleepy head. I'm hungry and I bet you are, too." When he pulled away again, teal eyes were looking up at him and he blushed again, though he wasn't sure why. Riku didn't move, his eyes locked on Sora's face and full of an emotion that the younger boy couldn't read. There was a little bit of surprise, he thought, probably at the fact that Sora had kissed his forehead, but the rest was a mystery.

Ever so slowly, one of Riku's arms abandoned Sora's waist and made its way up until the silver-haired boy's hand was cupped around the other's cheek. His face warm with a darkening blush, Sora allowed his chin to be tilted down so that Riku could return the affectionate gesture.

"Riku…"

"Yeah?"

He was going to say it. He was going to admit that he liked him. So what if Roxas was in the room—the blond already knew—and this was the most tender moment he'd ever shared with the older boy. He wanted to tell Riku the truth and now was as good a moment as any.

"I…" Oh, god, what if Riku rejected him? What if he laughed? It would be so typical of the older athlete to make a joke out of it and tease him for the entirety of winter break. Sora lowered his eyes as his momentary courage faded. "Never mind."

A heavy sigh from across the room drew the attention of both Sora and Riku, and the two looked in time to see Roxas quickly occupy himself organizing his desk. Embarrassed now, Sora freed himself from Riku's lingering embrace and sat up so he could stretch more fully as his stomach rumbled unhappily.

"We missed lunch," he remarked, and Riku nodded as he slowly got to his feet.

"Yeah, but we can have noodles or something small so we don't ruin our appetites for dinner in a few hours."

Nodding, the brunet looked past his friend to find Roxas looking at him. It was obvious that his twin was a little disappointed, and Sora immediately knew it was because he'd chickened out of telling Riku that he liked him.

"Sorry," he mouthed, and Roxas shrugged as a way of saying that maybe now just wasn't the right time. That didn't really make Sora feel any better. It seemed like it was never the right time, and he worried that if he waited too long, something would happen to get in the way. He was determined to do it before classes started again in January, though. For sure, by then, he'd have found the perfect opportunity. Hopefully.