Words: 3555

See Chapter One for Standard Disclaimers/Warnings

A/N: This chapter shows the height of the 'angst' for Roxas you'll be seeing in this fic. If you're hoping for drama, you're in the wrong place.

On the Seventh Day....

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Tuesday, December 31st

...Or, even bad guys have a grandma, and she's cool.

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True to his word Axel showed up on Roxas' doorstep shortly after noon, grinning from ear to ear. Roxas, who had spent most of the morning so far sulking, felt better at the sight of him. He was feeling rather peeved with his brothers at that particular point in time as they normally they spent New Years night together. This year, though, all three of his elder siblings had something else to do. Cloud had somehow been talked into helping Tifa with the annual crowd at the Seventh Heaven Bar and Grill, (Word had it, it was 'repayment' for having to be 'rescued' the other day) and Demyx had volunteered to help as well. That was Demyx for you, though, and the fact that he'd be given a chance to sing his little heart out for no reason helped as well. Demyx loved any chance he had to show off his favorite talent, after all. As for Sora, his twin had been kidnapped by Kairi and Riku, and drafted into the Annual New Year's Get Together committee.

So, here he was, glad to see something to distract him landing so nicely on his porch as it were. Axel rocked on his heels and looked at him expectantly, "Ready to go then?"

"Yeah, let me grab my coat and stuff.. Unless you're going to drag me off without, like the girls did."

"Nah, I'll let you get them. Not only am I a sexy kidnapper, I'm a nice one to!"

"You keep telling yourself that." Roxas muttered, shaking his head, he really couldn't understand Axel. He was just plain weird.

When they were in Axel's car and driving deeper into the city the red head asked, "You know that New Year's Fair they have?"

"Yeah, I never go though."

Axel gave a low laugh, "I didn't expect you would have."

"Am I really that predictable?" Roxas asked teasingly.

"Only in this it seems."

Roxas sighed expansively, "Well someone's got to do it. The world might explode if there isn't someone to balance out all the holiday brought stupidity."

"You keep telling yourself that, Roxie. Anyway, that fair started yesterday apparently."

Roxas hummed in agreement, "Sora spent all day there with Riku and Kairi, that's apparently how he got drafted into the New Year's Gathering committee, or whatever."

"Ah yeah, Reno told me about that big get-together. You guys sure like your parties."

"Don't look at me! We might have started the gift exchange, but this one's not our fault."

Axel laughed at him, "Don't get your spikes in a twist. Anyway, as I was saying..."

Roxas pouted, feeling thwarted, "Here I was hoping I could distract you."

"You have to try harder if you want to distract me." Axel shot back, grinning wickedly. "Besides you're the kidnap victim, you're supposed to do what I say."

"I thought you were a nice kidnapper."

"Well, I haven't tied you up, or duct tape your mouth shut yet, have I?"

"True."

"Now, shush. Didn't your mother teach you about interrupting people?"

The look that overtook Roxas' face at that moment was perfectly wicked, "Yes. She said 'Do it as much as possible because usually they're just stupid, and your opinions better anyway. At least to you it is, but you're who matters to you anyway, right?' and then she'd say, 'Besides, if they're talking to you about it, they obviously want your opinion anyway.'"

Axel burst out laughing, "Well... we know where your attitudes from, then. Anyway..." Roxas opened his mouth to cut Axel off again, but the red head took a moment to take a hand off the wheel and shake a finger at Roxas before pointing at the glove box. "I have a roll of duct tape in there, and I'm not afraid to use it!" Once he was sure Roxas was at least humoring him in being quiet Axel went on, "We're going to spend some time at the market part of the fair. It'll be like.. a scavenger hunt."

At Axel's meaningful pause Roxas fought down his amusement and made his voice as flat and exasperated as he could, "What are we looking for?"

The cheerfully smirking redhead simply said, "Why, your present of course!"

"You know, you didn't exactly get me a present every day." Roxas said thoughtfully.

"Sure I did, just not in the usual sense of gift giving."

"Oh?" asked the blond, truly curious to hear Axel's explanation.

"Well, there was the fruit basket and the turtle doves; That was 'usual' gift giving... But then there were the days when you just enjoyed time with friends. What's more of a gift than that, you know? Nothing better than having a good time with the people you like."

Roxas turned to look out the window, watching the city streets roll by, and smiled at the red head's words. Axel, he realized, obviously didn't put much stock in the commercialized version of the holidays. At the very least he could expect the next several days to be eventful, just as the last six had been.

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The New Years Fair took over a great deal of the downtown area where it sprawled from the little cookie cutter shops to the large park, part of which was usually cordoned off for the bigger festivities. Their destination was the aforementioned shops that were full of self promotion and, good cheer. The owners and employees parading samples, and treats to entice possible customers inside. Little stalls lined the sides of the roads with the people running them bundled up against the chill. A babbling crowd moved through the area cooing over trinkets, and sampling foods. All in all, it was chaos.

Roxas was already feeling apprehensive. All things considered he really didn't have much in the way of good experiences where holiday going crowds were concerned. Axel stood beside him beaming at the scene as if it was a favorite child. The red head grabbed Roxas arm and towed him down the street heading over to a stall displaying windswept clothing.

"Whoa, check out that!" Axel crowed pointing out a black t-shirt displaying a flaming skull design. "I love these things! they always have awesome designs, don't you think?"

Roxas tilted his head, eying the display critically, "I think it's nuts to be out here in this weather."

"Bah! Stop getting stuck on the little things, Roxas! This is all about enjoying yourself!" Axel scoffed, and brushed aside the complaint. "Oh, what about that one?" This one displayed red and gold eastern-styled dragons, wrapped around a flaming yin-yang symbol.

"I'm seeing something of a pattern here." Roxas quipped.

Axel winked at him, "That ones all you." The shirt Axel was talking about was simple: Its design that of a white 'smiley' face with an angry scowl on it, and the words 'Go die' printed beneath it. Roxas cracked a small smile at that, "There we go!" Axel's triumphant cry startled a bit of a laugh out of the blond, and before he could think much on anything the redhead was towing him down the street again.

Axel's next stop was a display of dream catchers, below which was jewelry made of shells, horns, and beads. While Axel examined several shell pendants with animal depictions carved on them. Roxas turned his attention upward, looking at the fascinating weave of the dream catchers. At the corner of the display tent a wooden wind chime clacked a fine, hollow note.

Axel dragged him into one of the stores next. The scent inside was one of incense, and the closely gathered shelves were lined with statues of fantastical creatures, cute little animals going about their lives, weaponry hanging on the walls, and jewelry clustered in display counters. Several people puttered about the small room commenting on the things they liked. Axel exclaimed over several wicked looking knives, and a few adorable statues of baby dragons. Apparently, though, what he was searching for wasn't here and soon he dragged Roxas back out into the street.

The redhead's next stop was to grab a couple Styrofoam cups full of hot chocolate from a person selling them on the walk. It was a bit bland in flavor, Roxas thought, but otherwise it wasn't that bad. It was warm, and that was all that really mattered at that point. The pair continued to stroll along, ducking into shops and browsing stalls. They were nearing the end of the impromptu boardwalk, and Axel was looking a bit sulky. He'd yet to find whatever it was he was looking for.

"What is it you're trying to find?" Roxas asked.

"A present for you, like I said."

"Well, maybe if you were a bit more specific..." Roxas prompted, but his words fell on deaf ears as Axel was making a beeline for a stand near the end of group.

The stand had a small display of metal work done into different designs. Picture frames made out of spirals, and metal beads, and thicker ones with flowers or animals. Others looked sort of like Christmas ornaments: From animals, to plants, and other simpler, modern art, sorts of designs. Axel peered over some of these intently then grinned triumphantly and forked over some cash while pointing at one of them. By the time Roxas reached his side whatever it was he had bought had been bagged, and stowed in Axel's pocket.

Roxas peered curiously at the display, "What'd you buy?"

"You'll see!" Axel replied, his cheery mood restored in full. "Anything else you want to do here?" Roxas shook his head. "Good, c'mon!"

The blond found himself once more being pulled down the street toward where the shops and road terminated in the park. For a moment he thought that Axel was going to drag him off the other part of the fair, but instead the red head turned into the park proper. After a few minutes he released his arm and slowed his pace so that the duo were walking together as they meandered down the snow lined paths.

The park, for the most part, was quiet. Not too many people were wandering in this direction. It was mostly just a few elderly people throwing seed to pigeons, or the odd couple. Once or twice they ran across a group of friends hanging out as Axel directed their course further along the path.

They were just passing one of the more open areas when it happened. 'It' being Roxas got hit in the side of the head by a snowball. The blond gave a yell of surprised outrage, and stumbled to the side, right into the taller redhead. Axel immediately reached out and grabbed his shoulders to steady him.

"Hey! You two!" It was a familiar voice, and Roxas looked up batting snow from his spiky blond hair to see an equally familiar person coming toward. The man had his hand lifted, pointing at them, as if he could pin them to their place with his stare and upraised arm alone. Two others dogged his footsteps a few paces behind.

"You okay?" Axel asked, glaring over the blond's head. "What's this guys problem?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. His problem's that he has chronic idiot disease. That's Seifer, and his 'posse' Fuujin and Raijin."

As Seifer reached them Axel barked, "That was uncalled for!"

"The little punk deserved it, you know?" Raijin spoke up from the left.

"TRUTH!" Fuujin added.

Seifer sneered, "Yeah, and a lot more! I'm gettin' sick of this crap you pull every year, Roxas."

Roxas glared quietly, giving a very good impression that he was trying to glare a hole in Seifer's face. Axel spoke up again, coming to the blond's defense, "Oh come on? Is this over the other day, with the decorations? He didn't even trash anything! Just knocked a few things over. Talk about overreacting!"

"And who're you?" Seifer taunted, waving his hand in the air dismissively. "His boyfriend?"

"PRINCESS!" came Fuujin's contribution.

"Oh, right..." Seifer drawled. "You're his knight in shining armor! Gotta save the pretty princess, right?"

Axel clenched his jaw. He looked ready to knock Seifer on his ass, and while Roxas thought that'd be amusing he shoved Axel back with a sigh, "Weren't you the one who used to run around the neighborhood telling everyone how you were going to be a knight, Seifer?"

Seifer never got a chance to respond as there came a loud thump, and Seifer pitched forward slightly. This was followed immediately by a scolding voice, "Seifer Almasy! You leave those nice boys alone!" The culprit turned out to be a short, old woman.

"Gran!" Seifer yelped, wincing backwards as the old woman shook her handbag at him. She'd used it to smack him a few seconds prior.

"I leave you alone for five seconds, and what do you do?" The old woman turned toward Axel and Roxas. The pair had been staring in dumbfounded surprise, but quickly pulled themselves together. "Oh! If it isn't Roxas, I haven't seen you in ages, sweetie. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine Mrs. Almasy, it was just a snowball."

Granny Almasy took his hand, and gave it a pat, "You'll have to come by sometime. Tell the same to your brothers would you?"

"Sure thing."

The old woman turned around and smacked Seifer on arm with her purse again to shoo him along as she ranted at him, "You better be glad your Grandda isn't still alive or he'd have..."

Whatever Seifer's grandfather would have done they never found out, because Seifer yelped out another "Gran!" which drowned Grandma Almasy's words.

"That..." Roxas said after several seconds of absolute silence. "was surreal."

"No." Axel choked out, obviously he was very close to breaking down in laughter. "That was hilarious!" After that Roxas lost Axel to the grip of laughter. The red head used the blond's shoulder to keep himself off the ground, though to be honest Roxas wasn't completely sure how he was still upright considering he'd descended into laugher at Axel's heels. The redhead had a rather infectious cackle.

"Hoo..." Axel wheezed helplessly, trying to get himself under control. "Oh, that was great, I think I'm crying." The redhead said as he pawed at his eyes.

"I can't breathe."

"Okay. I'm good." Axel finally managed. He straightened up and schooled his features in a blank expression, taking a deep breathe. He looked so silly that Roxas snorted and degenerated into another fit of laughter. When he finally slowed again Axel was watching him, a smirk on his lips and one fist propped on his hip, "You done, then?"

"Yeah, I think so." Roxas snickered. "I think I pulled something in the vicinity of my lungs though."

Axel threw an arm around his shoulders companionably, "Feels good, doesn't it?"

"You're such an idiot!"

"So you keep telling me."

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Axel's meandering path eventually brought them to the pond near the middle of the park. It was a man-made affair, and thus had some areas that were generally free of ice year round. Roxas hadn't been here for awhile, but he could recall that it only froze completely in the worst of winter conditions. Axel tugged him over to the viewing deck: a simple wooden thing that protruded over the water, and had a roof; inside it was lined with benches and a couple picnic tables. Axel pulled him to one corner and pointed toward where a couple large, white birds were gathered across the width of the water from them.

"Huh, I didn't know we had swans here."

Axel grinned, leaning on the railing beside him. "Yeah, I don't think there's seven of them, but hey!"

Roxas laughed, "You managed to go traditional for two in a row now."

"Don't expect me to keep at it."

"Don't you have something for me?"

"Yeah, I guess I do. Geeze, Rox, you're really getting into this aren't you."

Roxas flushed, looking a bit flustered at being called out, "I might be enjoying it a little."

"Just a bit." Axel teased as he indicated a few millimeters of space with his thumb and pointer finger. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out the familiar red envelope, along with the little plastic bag that contained whatever he'd bought earlier. He handed both over to Roxas.

Roxas opened the card first, flipping it open to see what sort of silly poem Axel had come up with this time:

If you've been keeping score

I'm sure you know by now

With birds I am rather poor

Still I've managed somehow

And as for these

They like to say swans are beautiful

And I like to say geese

Are an evil handful

Swans are more

Than just a good look

Their wings pack a good right hook!

Axel

"I think you outdid yourself that time."

Axel laughed jovially, "I hope thats a good thing."

"I'm not sure what you overdid. Either the silliness, or just the amount of words in that one..." Roxas continued as if he hadn't heard a word the red head said. "I don't think you'd make it as a poet." He added.

Axel sighed in a melodramatic way, "Life's not fair, is it?" This was directed at one of the swans which had slid on some of the ice and fallen to one side, flapping cumbersomely to right itself. Roxas smacked him with his card, and Axel found himself laughing again.

Roxas opened the bag, and ignored his cackling companion. When he reached in his fingers came in contact with something soft and he grabbed hold. He found himself gripping a soft red ribbon that was attached to well-made metal swan: It's neck bent in the classic curving fashion, and the beak touching it's breast, "You spent that entire time trying to find a swan to give me?"

"Mmhmm."

"Thanks."

------

They were on their way out of the park, and as they walked passed the area Seifer had assaulted them in Roxas got an idea. He slowed slightly letting the red head get ahead of him, and nabbed a handful of snow. Axel didn't know what hit him when it smacked into the back of his head. He whipped around to find a smirking Roxas standing there.

"Did you just...?"

Roxas nodded and silently quirked a brow.

"This means war. W-A-R– "

"Yeah, yeah, I got it memorized. Just try me, I've got three older brothers remember!"

"You're not the only one with an older sibling!"

With that Axel grabbed a handful of snow, packed it down, and hurled it at Roxas. The blond, however, was already moving and avoided it easily. It didn't take long for it to fall into a full scale one-on-one war. There was no sanctity, and snow was shoved down shirts, or right into faces in surprise attacks. At one point Axel managed to tackle Roxas into a snowbank, and about laughed himself sick watching the shorter man try and get back out of it. Roxas had his revenge later by tripping Axel face first into that self same snowdrift.

In the end the two lay sprawled in the midst of their devastated battle field. Axel was idly making a snow angel somewhere to Roxas left. "Well," said the blond. "That was fun."

Axel snickered, "It's been awhile since I had a snowball fight."

"My brothers and I make a habit of it. You should come over next year, and we'll all have one."

"Make the teams a little uneven won't it?"

"Bah, who needs teams. It's every man for himself."

"Sounds like fun, so long as your brothers won't mind." Axel stood up, and extended a hand toward Roxas.

"I don't know why they would." The blond allowed the red head to pull him up, and the two idly dusted snow from their jackets and hair. The conversation had reminded Roxas of his earlier bad mood and for a moment he glanced toward Axel, thinking about inviting his new found friend over for the evening. At least then he wouldn't be spending new years alone.

"What's up?" Axel's voice pulled Roxas out of his thought

"Nothing." Roxas said, sounding a little sullen. "Let's get going."

As the blond walked passed him Axel frowned, but said nothing, and followed him.

------

When Axel dropped him off Roxas paused, and leaned down to look back at the red head. Once more he thought of asking if Axel wanted to stick around, but again just shoved the thought away, "I had fun." he said lamely, unable to think of anything else.

"Me to. See you later, okay?"

"Right." Roxas nodded, and headed toward the door, feeling just a little lonely. He never noticed Axel frowning at his back before he left.