It was clean enough. At least, Roxas told himself it was as he surveyed his and Sora's new dorm. With the help of their friends, they'd managed to move all of their things from the freshman hall to the sophomore one in only a few trips. Now, all of their things had been unpacked, though not everything was put away just yet.

Today, he was supposed to finish setting up while Sora was at work. So far he'd made good progress, but he'd abandoned that job in favor of making sure everything looked nice even if it wasn't completely put away.

In the small amount of time he'd spent cleaning, the blond though he'd done a good job.

He'll be here any minute.

The text had caught him off-guard and sent him into a flurry of action, though Roxas was proud that he'd managed to finish with time to spare.

Never thought I'd put that sort of effort into hanging out with him.

If someone had told him only a couple of months ago that he would be cleaning his dorm today because Axel was coming over, he would have laughed in their face. It would have sounded so preposterous. Completely unrealistic. Impossible.

Yet here he was, standing in the middle of his room making sure it was clean enough for Axel to come over. Things had certainly changed in the last few weeks.

The sound of a knock on the door startled him and the blond jumped slightly—wait, was he nervous? To see Axel? No, no, of course not. That would be ridiculous. There was no way he was nervous to spend time with the senior. Why should he be? It wasn't like he was actually starting to—

Knock, knock. "Roxas?"

Blue eyes widened and Roxas rushed to open the door. "Hey! Sorry! I was just, um…" Crap. What was he supposed to say?! His silence dragged on ass he struggled to come up with something. Eventually, Axel chuckled and shook his head, eyes disappearing behind lids for a moment.

"You were, what?" he asked, and Roxas gave an embarrassed smile.

"I forgot what I was going to say."

"In that case, can I come in?"

Roxas nodded and stepped back out of the way, mentally smacking himself as he closed the door.

Smooth. Real smooth. Way to look like a complete idiot as soon as he gets here.

"So, whaddya wanna do?"

Turning, he saw that Axel had claimed Sora's desk chair and was waiting expectantly.

"Uh, we can watch a movie or play videogames or go for a walk," the blond suggested; Axel made a face.

"Let's not go outside."

His tone was so flat that Roxas couldn't help but glace at the window. A pale blue sky reigned over their winter-bound campus. It looked cold, though it wasn't currently snowing or windy.

"You don't like the cold," Roxas commented, settling into his own chair and turning to face the older boy. Axel wasn't looking at him; his green eyes were locked on the window as if something beyond the glass had caught his attention and he couldn't bring himself to look away.

"Axel?"

The redhead turned just slightly, though he was still looking at the window.

"Are you okay?" the blond asked, growing concerned.

It took a moment, then Axel slowly looked away from the window and grinned crookedly. "Yeah. I'm fine."

There was something in his voice that worried Roxas, though he knew that now wasn't the time to ask about it. So, instead, he smiled.

"Let's have cocoa and play videogames," he decided, and Axel nodded.

"Sure."

Being deliberately casual, Roxas got up and moved to where the TV and gaming systems had been put for safekeeping. They weren't plugged in or set up in any way, but since everything was laid out where it needed to be on the shelves, Roxas had it on and running in only a couple of minutes.

"You pick the game," the sophomore instructed, holding a black nylon case out to Axel, "and I'll make the cocoa."

The senior grinned as he accepted the case. "Yes, sir." His tone was slightly teasing and Roxas turned away before his blush could set in, busying himself with the hot cocoa.

He was blushing from that tiny bit of teasing? What was wrong with him?

Keep it together, Roxas, he commanded himself as he retrieved two mugs from the hanging cupboard. The sophomore hall was considerably nicer than the freshman hall—these rooms were bigger and had more storage space so it didn't look so cluttered. It's just Axel doing what he always does.

True, but he would have been annoyed by the older boy's teasing a few weeks ago. Now it made him blush and he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about it. Well, maybe he was just going to have to test the waters, so to speak.

I could tease him back, the blond thought, measuring the instant cocoa powder into the portable brewing machine his and Sora's parents had given them in preparation for the winter months. It made about four cups per batch so they would each get plenty, and Roxas waited until it had started to mix the powder and water before turning around to face Axel.

"Did you pick one?"

Axel held up a disc. "Halo?"

Nodding, Roxas took the disc and put it in the correct consol. Both boys moved the chairs to sit where they could easily see the TV screen and Roxas flashed a small, nervous smile at the older student. They'd sat so close together that their elbows touched and Roxas couldn't help but think that, had they been sitting on a couch or futon, they'd have been even closer.

I wouldn't mind that.

They were silent as the game loaded and the beginning cutscene played through, and Roxas couldn't help but glance at Axel every few moments. To his embarrassment, one of his glances found the redhead looking directly at him, smirking and with a raised eyebrow; Axel knew he'd been looking.

"Sorry," the blond mumbled, face red as he stared at the TV to avoid meeting those green eyes.

"What were you looking for?"

The question caught him off-guard and Roxas could only shrug. He didn't know why he'd stolen so many glances at the senior, just that he couldn't help it, and even though he didn't have an answer, he had a question.

"Why do you like me, Axel?"

"What do you mean?"

Turning, the sophomore forced himself to meet Axel's gaze. "In chemistry, when you passed me that note, why'd you do it? You didn't know anything about me."

A crooked grin appeared on the redhead's face. "That was the point, though. I wanted to get to know you."

"Then why didn't you just come talk to me after class? Or in P.E.?" Roxas asked, persistent.

Axel looked away. "I did talk to you in P.E. on your first day."

"Yeah, but you didn't tell me your name or that the notes were from you," the blond pointed out, and Axel shrugged.

"I didn't want you to know it was me yet, and I couldn't just talk to you like I wanted."

"Why not?"

The older boy hesitated, fiddling with his remote as the forgotten videogame sat waiting for them to play; an empty silence betrayed that the cocoa was finished, as well, but neither of them moved to get it. "Because…it's complicated," he hedged, and Roxas fought back the urge to roll his eyes.

"You can tell me, Axel."

"I shouldn't, though." The senior shook himself then forced a smile. "Are we gonna play or what?"

"Yeah." Roxas looked at his companion with unreadable blue eyes. "We are."

And that was that. His curiosity gnawed at his brain, distracting him, but he ignored it as best he could. If Axel didn't want to talk about whatever was making things complicated, then Roxas wan't going to force it out of him. They'd only made it through the first few missions, however, when he noticed the senior looking at him out of the corner of his eye.

"What?" he asked without looking away from the screen as he maneuvered his character down a pathway.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah."

"Do you like Hayner?"

Startled by this question that came from seemingly nowhere, Roxas managed to tear his focus form the game long enough to give Axel a confused look.

"Yeah, he's nice and cool and he does keep Seifer from causing me trouble. We're pretty good friends now, I think."

"NO," there was impatience in the older boy's tone, "do you like-like him?"

Roxas paused the game and faced the senior. "As in, do I want to date him?"

The redhead nodded, also turning in his chair.

A few moments passed as the smaller male regarded the larger, trying to figure out what had made him ask.

"No," he finally answered, "I don't like-like Hayner. Why?"

Axel shrugged and faced the TV again, though Roxas could tell that the senior was holding back a grin.

"Why did you want to know, Axel? Were you jealous or something?"

To his surprise, the redhead chuckled then started laughing.

"Me, jealous?" he managed between laughs. "Of Hayner? No way. I just wanted to know if I was competing for your attention."

Roxas blinked, expression blank. Competing? For him? Hayner and Axel were competing over him? It was preposterous, completely groundless. Why would anyone in his right mind think that Roxas was worth competing for.

"My attention?" he repeated, still dumbstruck. "Why?"

Axel chuckled again. "Come on, you've gotta know that you're good-looking on top of being a genius, and you actually have a personality that most people would want to spend time around. Why wouldn't we compete with each other?"

"I don't know." It really didn't make any sense to him. "I'm nothing special."

"Yeah, you are," Axel contradicted with a grin. "You're special enough to fight for, Baby Blues, and I hope you realize that."

Roxas' face turned red to hear the nickname out loud; the older boy hadn't called him that in a while, and it still got to him. Besides, he had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that, so he remained silent and got up to fetch the cocoa in order to avoid the top.

Axel thinks I'm special.

Knowing it made him feel oddly warm and even a little smug.

X

Impatient, Sora watched the clock on the wall as it ticked away the seconds. Less than an hour to go and he'd be done for the rest of break—Yuffie apparently closed up shop during the holidays, so he didn't have another shift until the second week of January. Which also meant that he got his paycheck today.

Straight to the bank to deposit it then back to campus in time for dinner.

Not for the first time, Sora was glad he could access his bank account through the local branch. This way, he could use his debit hard rather than cash. Not that he ever bought anything save for the Christmas presents he'd ordered online.

Christmas.

Thinking about the holiday put an excited smile on the brunet's face and he wiggled in his chair behind the front counter. Christmas was his second favorite holiday—Halloween was his first—and he was even more excited for it than normal. Previous Christmases had consisted of time spent with his parents and Roxas. They would exchange gifts and have a family dinner. It was one of the few times of the year that they actually went home. This Christmas, though, the twins had opted to stay on campus and celebrate with their friends. They had, of course, arranged to videochat their parents on Christmas morning, but it would still be the first Christmas spent with more than the four of them.

It's going to be interesting, that's for sure, the brunet thought, fingers idly tapping on the countertop. He glanced at the clock again.

Forty-five minutes to go.

Ugh, he was so bored. There was literally nothing to do. Even Yuffie had said she didn't have any tasks for him because everything had already been taken care of. His only purpose today was to help any customers who came in, and so far there hadn't been any.

Sora glanced around furtively to see if Yuffie was coming before taking his phone out of his pocket and opening a new message.

Are you busy tomorrow?

He sent the text and quickly went back to the exact position he'd been in before in case anyone happened to glance in the store window—he definitely wasn't texting on the job. Within moments, his phone buzzed against his palm and he clicked it to see a response from Riku.

No, but I'm guessing I'm about to be.

That put a small grin on Sora's face and he wasted no time in typing up his reply.

Yep. We're doing Slave-for-a-Day, and don't try to get out of it. You agreed to this and just because you lost the bet doesn't mean you can back out.

We don't know who won yet, Brat.

I'm confident. Don't worry, I won't be TOO mean to you

He had to laugh a little to himself as he sent that message, knowing how indignant it would make the older boy for him to be a little teasing. It would probably annoy Riku and then he'd spend the day sulking regardless of who actually won, but Sora thought the silver-haired athlete deserved to be teased. After what he'd made Sora wear and do for the first Slave-for-a-Day bet, he deserved whatever revenge the brunet sophomore could come up with.

If I win, you're going to pay for that comment

The threat would have worried Sora if he wasn't so sure he'd won, so rather than shrink a little at the thought of being punished—which would definitely have been worse than anything he had to do last time—he just smiled and shook his head.

Yeah, and when I win, I'll make you eat your words.

Sure you will, Brat. I'll see you at midnight to compare grades.

See you at midnight.

He was even more excited for this than he had been a few minutes ago.

X

The internet was fully connected. His laptop was on and running smoothly and he'd just logged into the program he'd downloaded especially for this. Now all he had to do was wait.

Ding!

"Zexion is online," the speaker sounded in its automated voice, and Demyx couldn't help but smile. Immediately, he double-clicked on the name so that a small options menu appeared, and selected the "Video Call" bar. A larger window popped up, displaying his avatar along with Zexion's, with the symbol of a phone in between to show that his computer was trying to connect to the other boy's. It only took a moment for Zexion to answer, and then the avatars were replaced with windows of their faces.

Demyx's smile widened and he waved a little. "Hi, Zexion!"

His own fond smile in place, Zexion returned the wave. "Hey, Demy. How are you?"

"Kind of lonely," the blond admitted, "and it's too cold to go outside most of the time, but I'm okay. You?"

"Tired."

The word came out as a sigh and Demyx felt a pang of sympathy for the older boy. It hadn't been obvious at first, but now that he knew it was there, he noticed the darkness starting to form under Zexion's blue eyes that were slightly bloodshot, and his shoulders were slumped slightly.

"You can go to bed, Zex," he offered quietly. "I won't make you stay up just to talk to me. We can do this some other time."

"No." Zexion shook his head then gave Demyx an amused, knowing look. "You're only offering because you're worried about me, and if I say yes, you'll spend the rest of the night wishing you were talking to me, and I wouldn't be able to fall asleep anyway because I'd be wishing the same thing. But, since I'm not going to accept that offer, we'll stay up for a few hours and talk, and then I'll fall right to sleep afterwards because I got to talk to you, and I don't have to get up early tomorrow."

A blush appeared on the younger of the two's face and Demyx looked down at his hands in his lap. "I miss you, too."

Even though that hadn't been what Zexion said, he knew it was what the blue-haired boy meant, and he felt the same way. Yes, if Zexion was tired then Demyx would let him go to bed, but he couldn't deny that he would have done just what Zexion said he would. Lie awake in bed for hours wishing they'd gotten to talk for at least an hour because he missed the older boy already and videochatting with him was as close as they were going to get to being together for the next few weeks. And, as tired as Zexion looked, he believed that he felt the same way about being so far away from each other. Neither of them was used to it anymore.

"Hey, did Axel drop off my Christmas present for you?" the older boy asked, and Demyx shook his head.

"Nope. I haven't seen him at all."

"He's probably being lazy and hasn't bothered to leave our room. I'll text him tomorrow and make sure he brings it over."

At that moment, an idea occurred to Demyx that he almost couldn't wait to carry out, and he almost said it but managed not to at the last moment. It wasn't the sort of idea he wanted to tell Zexion about—it should be a surprise, after all. "No, don't do that. Just let him know that I'll come over to pick it up tomorrow. That way he doesn't have to go out into the cold."

Zexion looked impressed. "You remember that he hates the cold?"

"Kind of hard to forget when he won't stop complaining about it every time we walk to lunch or dinner," Demyx responded, earning a laugh from the older boy.

"I think I'm rubbing off on you, Dem." There was a playful warning tone to the blue-haired student's words, and Demyx put on an innocent smile.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Nope."