"I got it!" Sora jogged after the tennis ball as it bounced away, dodging between his fellow gym students until he caught it and turned, heading back to his own court. Riku, Seifer, and another senior called Rai who seemed to be Seifer's right hand man in his bullying activities, waited for him. Seifer and Rai were panting far more heavily than Riku was; even Sora had his breath after running after the ball that Rai had just hit out of bounds.

Grinning, he bounced the ball twice before taking his stance and tossing it into the air, bringing his racquet back and up in a graceful arc.

Thwink!

The tennis ball soared across the net towards Seifer's corner of the court and the blond lunged for it, just quick enough to send it back towards Sora and Riku. Riku volleyed it, sending it towards Rai, who wasn't quick enough to stop it from hitting inside his corner and bouncing out of bounds.

"That's three to one!" Sora gave Riku a high-five while Rai went after the ball.

Riku grinned across the net at Seifer, who was clearly getting tired during their fourth game. He and Rai had yet to win. "One more, and it's our game."

Annoyed, the senior rolled his eyes and stubbornly took his stance as Rai tossed the ball to Sora for another serve. This time, the brunet turned his head enough to wink at Riku without their opponents seeing as he gave the tennis ball his customary couple of bounces before serving.

The ball went up, his racquet whistled through the air, and Sora sent the tennis ball directly at Seifer's nose. He wasn't quick enough to dodge.

All three of the other players heard the smack of ball striking skin, and the sharp crack of Seifer's nose giving way under the impact. But it was the yell that got the attention of everyone else in the gym, including Coach Xaldin.

Blood was already pouring down onto the front of the blond senior's shirt. "Fuck!" He dropped to his knees, cupping his hands around his nose as Rai hovered uselessly above him. At least Seifer had the good sense to pull his shirt up and bundle it around his face to try to stop the bleeding.

Xaldin took one look at the scene and sighed. "Get him to the nurse's office." Almost effortlessly, Rai lifted his injured teammate and half carried him from the gym, the pair followed by a string of garbled curses and a trail of red drops. "Who passed?"

Meekly, Sora raised his hand. "Me, Coach."

"Detention, Strife. You're gonna mop this floor spotless."

The brunet held in a groan; that would take ages. "Yes, Coach."

Xaldin turned and raised an eyebrow at the rest of the class, still frozen in their places from Seifer's initial shout. "Well? Get going! Class is only half over!"

In a flurry of movement, the other teams got back to their respective games. Sora looked at Riku, his satisfaction with wounding Seifer marred by the detention he'd been given.

The silver-haired boy grinned back at him. "Four to one. Our game."

X

"So," Axel's voice was muffled by the thick scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face, "what exactly is your book report about?"

They were walking together, each with a small bag of snacks from the local corner store, back on campus after the trip to and from Kingdom. Their shoes made small crunching sounds on the salted sidewalk.

"Animal Farm. It's a satirical novel about dictatorship. I have to write a paper explaining which parts are satirical and why the author chose those parts and what his inspiration was."

"I remember that paper. For Lexeaus, right?"

Roxas nodded, his chin and nose tucked into the collar of his coat to protect them from the cold. "What book did you do?" He glanced at Axel, though he couldn't see much now that the sun had set. The campus lights were enough to walk by, but not much else.

"Oh, hell. Uh, something to do with the Great Wall. Can't remember the book."

"Did you get a good grade on it?"

Axel let out a guilty laugh. "Not as good as I could have. I wasn't exactly dedicated to school back then."

Smiling behind his coat collar, Roxas nudged the older boy playfully. "Why doesn't that surprise me."

His laugh was more genuine now as Axel slung an arm around Roxas' shoulders and pulled him closer. "Because I'm…what does Zexion say? A glutton for punishment?"

Even in the cold, Roxas could feel his cheeks burning with a blush at being so close to the senior. "I've never heard him say that about you."

"You wouldn't. He likes to say it after I make particularly bad decisions."

"Like what?" They were nearing Axel's dorm hall now, and quickened their pace to get out of the cold a little sooner.

"Like that after party, during Homecoming. I think he said it to me five or six times the rest of that weekend." His tone was light, casual, but his arm wasn't settled around Roxas' shoulders so comfortably anymore—he was nervous about bringing it up.

"Oh, I forgot about that." He hadn't, not really, but he also didn't think of that night when he thought of Axel. So much had happened since then. The senior was practically a different person now. "And, you know, if you'd been sober and just talked to me, I probably would have liked you a lot sooner."

"Come on, Rox, since when do I make good decisions like that?"

The blond rolled his eyes and jabbed an elbow into the older boy's side. "Since you tried becoming my friend." He softened, leaning just slightly into Axel as they crossed the last few feet to the dorm hall doors. They were both reluctant to pull away in order to open the door and go inside, but relieved to be out of the cold, anyway.

Despite the darkness outside, the clock above the elevators claimed that it wasn't even 7pm yet—their trip into town hadn't taken very long.

Axel let Roxas onto the elevator first. "I'm thinking hot chocolate when we get upstairs."

Already pulling off his gloves and tucking them into his coat pockets, Roxas nodded. "Definitely."

"I've got mini-marshmallows," the senior sang quietly, and Roxas rolled his eyes.

"I'll throw them at you if you distract me from my homework."

Putting on his most winsome expression, Axel looked down at the younger student, a hand on his chest. "Me, distracting you? I would never."

The answering eye roll was even more exaggerated than the last. "Uh-huh."

With a ding, the elevator door slid open and both students exited onto the floor. Together, they turned in the direction of Axel's room, walking beside each other in comfortable silence.

"So," Axel unlocked the door to his room then stepped back so Roxas could go in first, "how chocolatey do you like your hot chock-oh-lot?" They both paused to take off their boots so they wouldn't track snow and salt into the dorm.

Setting his bag of snacks down beside Axel's bed and sitting, Roxas smiled up at the redhead. "Extra chocolatey."

"You got it, two extra chocolatey hot chocolates, coming right up!"

It made Roxas laugh a little, a soft, fond sound that Axel didn't notice as he set about making the drinks. Roxas pulled his backpack up onto the bed from where he'd left it on the floor before their trip into town and scooted back to sit against the wall. The quiet whir of the mixer accompanied the shuffling of papers as Roxas retrieved the proper notebook and his copy of Animal Farm. He'd already read through it once, and found it fascinating, if not rather upsetting. It was a good book.

Axel leaned over from his place by the room's sink, looking at Roxas. "What's that book about?"

"It's an allegory for dictatorship based on a cult of personality and corrupted socialism. Animals take over their farm from a bad farmer and while it goes well at first, the pigs end up just as bad as the farmer."

"That sounds…interesting."

"It is. It's a really good allegory, it shows how socialism can be viable in practice, the animals are willing to work hard to achieve a good life, but some of the pigs are greedy and corrupt the system and lie to put themselves above the other animals. They do a lot of damage even though the entire point of revolting was the idea that all animals are equal."

"How's it end?"

"The corrupt pigs are indistinguishable from real humans, and they actually sell off other animals to be killed by a 'knacker' so they can buy themselves whiskey. So it's…dark. But really well done," the blond answered absently, already searching through for quotes to use.

Axel looked lost for words for just a moment. "Oh."

With a soft chime, the cocoa mixer signaled it was finished and turned itself off; the cocoa spun until the momentum died.

"How many marshmallows?" Axel busied himself with pouring two mugs.

"Surprise me."

Grinning, Axel opened the bag and dropped a few into his own mug. "Okay."

His tone implied that he was going to take advantage of Roxas' answer, but the blond was too invested in copying down a passage of his book to notice. Only when Axel approached the bed with a mug in each hand and cleared his throat did the younger boy look up and see one of them topped with a small mountain of miniature marshmallows.

Blue eyes considered the drink. "Nice."

"Surprise," the senior teased, earning a laugh, and Roxas held his hand out for the drink.

"Thanks, Axel."

The redhead settled beside him on the bed and blew on his own cocoa. "No problem, Rox."

He plucked a marshmallow off the top of the pile and popped it into his mouth, the sugary sweetness making him smile. "If I get a sugar rush from this that keeps me up half the night, I'm blaming you."

The instant he said it, Roxas knew Axel was going to make an inappropriate comment. It was the mischievous twinkle in those green eyes, the way the redhead's mouth instantly failed to hold back a grin.

"I could keep you up half the night anyway, Rox," the senior was almost laughing as he said it, clearly joking. Or at least, mostly joking. Part of Roxas knew that, if he wanted, Axel would probably follow through with that. And he kind of wanted, but he didn't want to make it too easy on the older boy.

Roxas ate another marshmallow and chewed slowly, tilting his head away from Axel. "I don't know…" his gaze slid over to meet the redhead's, "could you? I don't consider much worth staying up for. I like to get plenty of sleep." Another marshmallow was taken from the pile.

Putting a hand over his chest in mock outrage, Axel lifted his chin pretentiously. "Why, I've never been so insulted! To doubt my ability to keep you entertained…I'm hurt! You've wounded me! My pride is broken!"

Unable to help it, Roxas snorted. "If that's all it took to break your pride, there must not have been much in the first place."

His hand dropped into his lap. "That's fair." He shrugged then grinned, waggling his eyebrows suggestively at the younger student. "But I still bet I could."

"Heh, yeah." To distract from the blush now taking over his face, Roxas scooped the remaining mountain of marshmallows into his hand so he could actually drink some of his cocoa. He could feel Axel's eyes on him, knew they were serious about what he'd said, what he was thinking. Roxas didn't let himself wonder about the details. It was too embarrassing. He'd barely even kissed Axel—they'd never really even held hands. And now they were talking about being up half the night—oh, no, his face was burning, he could feel it. He was way, way too warm.

"Roxas."

The soft way Axel said his name sent goosebumps over the blond's body; the marshmallows were uncomfortably sticky against his palm. "Yeah?"

It was quiet for just a few seconds, then, "I want to kiss you."

A sudden ache came into Roxas' jaw and he curled his toes inside his socks. He dumped the marshmallows back into his mug and hoped his hand wasn't covered in sticky residue.

"It's okay if you don't want to."

"No," he felt his face burning, couldn't pull his eyes away from his drink, "I want to."

Axel smiled and moved away just enough to set his drink down out of the way. "Okay."

This was awkward. This was so awkward. Did people do this all the time? Was this how kissing was supposed to start? Roxas really hoped not. He always thought kissing was supposed to be smooth and romantic and sweet. At least, that's what he always hoped it would be like.

"You okay?"

Roxas shook himself and put his own mug to the side, not looking at the other boy. "Yeah. Fine. Nervous." He smiled weakly, unsure if Axel could see it or not.

"Hey, that's fine," Axel soothed. "Totally fine. Nothing to be embarrassed about."

"Really? Cause I feel pretty embarrassed. No one's ever told me they wanted to kiss me before."

"I find that hard to believe."

The blond gave a nervous laugh.

"No, really," Axel was smiling at him, but keeping his distance for Roxas' comfort, "I thought you were completely kissable the first time I saw you."

A pleased flush came into Roxas' cheeks and he finally looked at the senior, his smile shy but genuine. "Really?"

"Yep. I remember sitting there looking at you, thinking, 'Damn, those are the bluest eyes I've ever seen.' I was already thinking about kissing you. Love at first sight." He was closer now, leaning in just a little as he complimented the blond. "I hope you didn't think I got drunk and hit on all the new kids."

"Well, not all of them," Roxas countered, feeling rather warm, this close to the senior.

"Just you. You and your blue eyes and your smile and everything. How was a poor bastard like me supposed to survive that sober?"

"I still say you should have just talked to me like a normal human."

"You didn't enjoy my notes, Baby Blues?"

"Not after Larxene caught me."

The mention of their teacher took some of the playfulness out of Axel's expression. "What did she do to you?" he asked softly, finally moving to put his hand over one of Roxas'.

Roxas looked away but didn't otherwise moving, letting Axel stay close. The hand on his own was comforting. "Beat me with a yardstick. My back was a mess for days. Sora was furious."

"I'm so sorry. That was all my fault. You didn't deserve that, and I should have known better than to try passing notes in her class."

Nodding, Roxas turned his hand to put his palm against Axel's and laced his fingers through the redhead's. "I know."

"I don't ever want to be the reason you get hurt again, Roxas. Ever."

"I know you don't, Axel."

"I really, really like you. And I know I messed up, but I'd like to take you out for Valentine's Day. Miss Larxene won't be happy and she'll probably be a huge bitch to you because she has this gross fixation on me, but I'd put up with anything from her to try being with you."

Roxas mulled the confession over for a moment, considering what Larxene had already done to him, weighing that against his new feelings for Axel. Thoughtful, he looked at the senior then leaned in to give him a quick kiss. "Yes."

Too stunned to move at first, Axel blinked before managing to meet Roxas' gaze. "What?"

The blond smiled and squeezed the other student's hand. "I'd like to go out with you for Valentine's Day."

It took a second or two for that to process, then Axel grinned and set his other hand on the back of Roxas' head. "Awesome." He pulled Roxas close and kissed him again, and this time, neither seemed to want to pull away.

X

Spam.

Spam.

School notice.

Family chain mail.

Spam.

A reminder about the spring concert.

Nothing.

She deleted the spam emails and closed out of the program, leaving the few others for later. Still no response. Days had passed—four, to be exact—and he hadn't answered. It was an option she gave him, to ignore her and that would be it. Apparently, it was the option he'd chosen, whether she liked it or not.

Kairi sighed and sat back in her desk chair, her eyes empty as she stared blankly at her laptop's background. Sixteen years old, and rejected for the first time. By her teacher, no less.

Well, she had to admit that was a little…cliché. Flirty student and stern teacher? Classic. What a terrible trope she'd fallen into.

"Very smart, Kari," she said mockingly, letting her head fall back and staring at the ceiling. "Get a crush on your teacher. Write self-insert erotica about your teacher. Slip them to him with your homework. Go on a date. With your teacher. Brilliant. What could possibly go wrong? It's not like he tried to tell you it wouldn't work out. Not like he rejected you over and over until you wore him down. That wasn't a good thing to do. That wasn't smart, or nice, or acceptable. He's an adult. He's my teacher. I shouldn't have ever even considered getting involved. Just because he's handsome and intelligent and sophisticated and perfect."

The sophomore rose to her feet and glanced at the clock mounted in the wall above the door; Namine would be back from the pool soon, having gone to swim with Sora and Riku while Roxas was busy studying with Axel.

Roxas and Axel are getting close. Sora and Riku spend more time together than apart.

Kairi caught her reflection in the room's mirror and quirked an eyebrow at herself. "Wouldn't be surprised if those two are fooling around and just too chicken to make it official. Big babies."

Even though she'd had a hand in both couples forming, or even having a chance, she was surprised at the bitterness that colored her voice. She should be happy her friends were making connections and finding people to be happy with. And she was! Seeing Roxas blush and fidget around Axel was an improvement by far from the angry muttering and death glares he'd given the senior before. With Valentine's Day approaching, she wouldn't be surprised if they officially went out for it. Riku would probably never agree to something as cheesy as a Valentine's Date, but Sora would likely be delighted. Maybe she should suggest something to him. It wasn't like Riku had a lot of experience with dating.

"Not like I do, either," she pointed out, walking in slow circles around the room. "Who did I ever date? Tons of first dates. Lots of guys my age. Didn't like them. How come? 'Immature.' They're not the ones crushing on a teacher like a bad soap opera."

Heaving a sigh, Kairi threw herself down on her bed and rolled onto her stomach, unceremoniously shoving her face into her pillow. It didn't matter—she'd already taken her makeup off for the day, and had no intentions of leaving the dorm again until morning. She didn't feel like socializing, not even with her friends. Hopefully, she'd be asleep before Namine got back.