.o.O.o.

I own nothing! Please don't sue me!

For additional warnings, disclaimers, and summary, see the first chapter!

.x.x.x.

…sometimes
I still think of you
And I just wanted to
Just wanted you to know
My old friend...
I swear I never meant for this
I never meant…

Don't look at me that way
It was an honest mistake

"An Honest Mistake" - The Bravery

.o.O.o.

Fool Me Twice…

Stop Messing It Up

-o-

After a previous day filled with walking around and sitting in the snow, thinking of plans on how to figure out the whole Axel deal, Roxas woke up the next morning with a feeling of purpose and determination.

That also could have been due to the fact that he'd gotten a good night's sleep for the first time since arriving at the ski resort. He'd gotten home as soon as it had started getting dark, finding Sora and Riku cuddling by the fire. After having some spiced tea that made him feel rather content and sleepy, Roxas had cautiously headed to his room.Cautiously, because he was terrified of walking into Seifer and Hayner engaged in another one of their little sessions of competition between the sheets.

Thankfully, though, there was neither hide nor hair of either of them, and after making sure to change the sheets and flip the mattress, Roxas climbed in, collapsing in exhaustion. He was mentally worn out – and tired from walking to boot – so he had almost immediately gone straight to sleep, with no tossing or turning while thinking about Axel. And the bed was just so much more comfortable than the couch.

Waking up at a little past six to find that Hayner had apparently not come home that night (urgh, what had he been doing, then? Roxas didn't want to think about it.) Roxas resolved himself to not being able to fall back asleep, pulled on some clothes and headed downstairs, looking forward to whatever Riku was cooking up for breakfast.

But Sora was currently sprawled across Riku on the couch, both of them still dead asleep. Tangled in a mess of limbs, Roxas didn't wander close enough to see if they were wearing anything underneath the quilted blanket that was sloppily pulled over them. If Sora was too tired to be awake before the sun, Roxas really didn't want to do too much investigating.

Well then. Roxas dug around in the pantry and refrigerator, coming up with a nutrition bar and a bottle of orange juice to serve as an adequate breakfast. Sitting down at the table he glanced at a magazine of some sort that had been left out, slowly chewing his food and trying to wake up a little more as he went over his plans for the day.

The first order of business would be finding out where Axel was. Which normally wouldn't be too hard, seeing as the redhead seemed to crop up all over the place, at whatever exact location Roxas was currently occupying, but Roxas figured that the moment he started actually trying to look for Axel, he would be nowhere to be found. But the lodge was always a good starting place, so Roxas cleaned up after himself, pulled on his snow jacket, and headed outside.

The walk to the lodge this early in the morning was kind of nice, Roxas thought as his breath came out in puffy clouds in the chill air. Everything was clear and bright, and birds were flitting around, chirping. The snow was a little choppy, due to the fact that there hadn't been any new snowfall since they had arrived and people walking around in it had gotten it all crunched up, but it was still nice all the same.

A warm rush of air met Roxas as he pulled open the double doors of the lodge, stepping in and looking around. As it was still fairly early not many other people were around, but Roxas spied a head of blonde over behind the café counter. Uuuuuurgh…

Steadying himself to interact, Roxas headed over. Halfway there he was spotted and acknowledged.

"Hey." Ven greeted as Roxas arrived at the counter. "How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Axel, actually." Roxas replied, not bothering with a friendly hello. After all, this Ven guy was his competition.

"Oh." The blonde replied, looking confused by the response. "Well it's his day off, he's probably either still sleeping, or hitting the slopes with Demyx."

"Right." Roxas said, turning on his heel and heading back for the door. "Thanks."

Since Roxas had no idea where Axel was staying, he opted for heading to the ski run. Not too many other people were there at the early hour, and Roxas ended up on the lift all by himself. It was a little scary, being up in the air on a wire, but he toughed himself up and dealt with it.

The top of the slope was nearly deserted, and Roxas wondered what to do with himself. He supposed he'd just wait for Axel? But after about twenty minutes Roxas realized that this was a stupid plan. He didn't even know for sure that Axel was going to be there. It would have been a lot easier if he just had some way to get in contact… with… Axel.

Oh duh.

Cursing his stupidity and belated though processes, Roxas pulled out his phone, finding Axel's number and calling it. He scowled as it rang, frustrated at himself for poor planning, and a little upset at Axel for not being where Roxas had wanted him to be, as unreasonable as that was.

"…Hello?"

"Axel, where the hell are you?" Roxas snapped in irritation.

"Roxas?"

"Yes, Roxas." The blonde confirmed in a huff. "Where are you?"

"…in my bed? Where am I supposed to be?"

"You're supposed to be at the slopes, so that we can hang out." Roxas exasperatedly explained, as if Axel was supposed to have known this.

"We're hanging out today?" Axel was asking, sounding very confused and still half asleep. "I don't remember planning to –"

"Well we're hanging out. Get up here." Roxas told him.

"Wait, you're already there?" Axel asked, and he still sounded confused, but now he also sounded rather amused. "Why the hell did you go wait out in the snow for me without even telling me that I was supposed to – "

"Shut up." Roxas cut in, flushing in embarrassment. "Just get your ass out of bed and come here, okay?"

"I have a better idea." Axel said, sounding much more awake now. Roxas could hear shuffling over the phone line, and assumed that Axel was getting up and pulling some clothes on. "Do you know where the snow gear rental store is?"

"Yes?" Roxas replied. "I got my snowboard there the other day."

"Okay." Axel replied, and Roxas could practically see the decisive nod that the redhead no doubt made. "Meet me there, okay?"

"Fine, whatever." Roxas grumbled.

"Bye Roxie!"

Roxas hung up the phone with a scowl. Damn it, this was supposed to be his day of planning what to do with Axel and he'd already managed to screw it up. Typical. But then again, he shouldn't have expected anything other than insanity and disorganization. After all, this all revolved around Axel, did it not?

.o.x.O.x.o.

Grumbling, Roxas trudged through the choppy snow surrounding the rental store, irritated that he'd had to come all the way back down the mountain. His irritation only grew when Axel was standing right outside, bundled up in a jacket and scarf, looking bright and chipper. Why was he going out of his way to re-establish connections with that idiot again?

"Hey Roxas." Axel greeted as Roxas came to stand in front of him. "Have fun going up and down the mountain for no reason?"

"Fuck you." Roxas grumbled. "Just tell me why we're here."

"Well lucky for you, Demyx met up with some friend from school and ran off to spend the day with him, leaving me with one amazing extra rental which I can now share with you."

Roxas didn't like he sound of that, and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What did you guys rent?"

Rather than answering, Axel simply smirked, ruffling Roxas's hair and inclining his head towards the side of the rental store. "C'mon, let's go check it out."

With a growing sense of dread, Roxas followed after Axel. The redhead led him around to the back of the building, where all of Roxas's worst nightmares came true.

"No. No, no, no, Axel, no way. I don't know what the hell you were thinking, but there is no way I'm doing this with you." He said, eyes wide in fear as he shook his head and backed away. Axel grabbed his arm, laughing, and dragged him back.

"Oh come on! It'll be fun! Kind of like skidoos, but for the snow!"

"Right." Roxas deadpanned. "Because that comparison makes me feel sooooo much better about the situation." But Axel was ignoring him, finding out who was in charge of rentals and getting set up.

With extreme trepidation, Roxas watched Axel fill out the rental forms for the… the snowmobiles. God help him. He was going to die.

"All set, Roxie!" Axel chipperly announced, handing the papers back to the rental guy. "Let's go pick em' out, yeah?"

Finding the single-person snowmobiles, they both picked their poison, so to speak, and after some quick instruction, were allowed to take off into the wilderness. Roxas was glad to not have to share a snowmobile that Axel was in charge of commanding, but even in control of his own means of transportation he felt a bit of anxiety. The snow was choppy from other people who had been either walking or snowmobiling around, and it made for a bumpy ride. Not only that, but the things were noisy as hell, and smelled like gasoline.

"Isn't this great?" Axel called back with a wild grin on his face, looking ecstatic.

"Yeah. Great. Exactly the adjective I was looking for." Roxas called back, struggling to convey his annoyance while shouting as loud as he could. "And look where you're going!"

Axel seemed to take pleasure in going very fast, and making very abrupt turns around trees, bushes, posts, children and small animals, etc. Roxas watched, horror-struck, as the elder teen barely avoided flipping his snowmobile over as he turned out a little too fast on a snow bank for the 1,238,176,248,352,015th time.

"AXEL!" He called out, struggling to keep up. "Slow down! Jesus!"

Instead, Axel floored it, going very straight very fast, before abruptly turning in a complete 180, causing a flurry of snow to go fluffing out behind him. He stopped then, thank God, and Roxas caught up, pulling alongside him with a glare.

"What the hell, Axel, these things aren't toys." He lectured. "Stop going crazy, you're gonna crash and kill yourself, and I'm not pitching in for the funeral."

"Pffft." Axel scoffed, waving his hands in a careless gesture. "I know what I'm doing. Stop being so uptight. Now come on, keep up."

And with that he was off, leaving Roxas to growl angrily in his throat and attempt to catch up.

Zig-zagging across the snow, they ventured further and further out into the woods, until Roxas was quite sure that they were no longer on the property of the ski lodge. In fact, they could very well no longer be in the right country for all he knew. They were probably going to die out here, in the freezing cold wilderness, and no one would ever even find their bodies. In fact, there might not even be any bodies to find after the wolves –

"Roxas!"

Snapping out of his morbid daydreams, the blonde looked to Axel, only to find that the idiot was slowing down, letting Roxas catch up.

"What?" he yelled back.

"Let's stop here."

Looking around, Roxas found that they were on the edge of a clearing, the blanket of snow devoid of any outside disturbance. Obviously they were far out of the range of the resort, just as Roxas had thought.

Slowing down and cutting the engine alongside Axel, Roxas shakily got off of the speeding death trap, surveying their surroundings. Axel clambered off of his own snowmobile and crunched through the snow to stand by Roxas, looking around appreciatively.

"Pretty nice, eh?"

"Where are we?" Roxas replied, refusing to acknowledge that yes, it was pretty nice. Scattered trees surrounded them, and a clearing type of area stretched out before them, looking pristine and wilderness-y.

"Who knows?" Axel replied with a grin. "But it's cool, right?"

"What!" Roxas exclaimed, waving his arms wildly. "Axel, what do you mean? We could be lost, and all because you had to be an idiot and go speeding off into the –"

"Rox, chill out." Axel cut in. "We can follow our tracks back. And come on, where's your sense of adventure?"

Slightly mollified by the promise of a way to get back, Roxas calmed down. Okay, fine, so he had to admit… it was pretty nice, wherever they were. There wasn't anyone else around talking and being loud (well, except for Axel, as per usual) and the only sounds were the chirping of birds and the occasional 'thunk' of snow as it fell from the branches overhead.

"Yeah, alright, we can hang out here, I guess." Roxas mumbled, and Axel grinned, pleased to interpret that as a Roxas version of 'I like it here'.

Grabbing a tarp that was affixed to the side of the snowmobile, Axel tossed it at the base of a nearby tree, sitting down on it and patting the space next to him, indicating that Roxas should join him. "C'mon, Roxie, si'down."

Heaving a sigh, Roxas plopped down next to Axel, leaning back against the tree. Axel leaned over, nudging him playfully with a shoulder. Roxas turned to glare at him, only to be met with a wide grin.

"Pretty nice, huh?"

"I guess." Roxas noncommittally responded.

"Especially nice to be here with me, right?"

"Hn." Roxas huffed. "Sure, we'll go with that."

They ended up sitting in silence for a good while, and Roxas found himself stealthily creeping closer and closer to Axel until they were side-to-side, the blonde leaning against the taller male, just slightly. The companionable silence was rather nice, and proved to be conducive to viewing wildlife as well when two deer passed by them through the snow, not fifteen feet away.

Really, it was all so quaint and perfect that Roxas had a hard time registering that he was sharing the experience with Axel of all people.

"Are you cold or something?" Axel asked, and Roxas looked up to see that Axel was frowning slightly, looking concerned. Becoming conscious of himself, Roxas realized that he was quite snugly cuddled up to Axel's side, and was, in fact, shivering a little. "Cause I mean, I like the attention and all, but I don't want you to go dying on me or something."

"I'm just cold." Roxas grumbled, scooting away and pouting.

"Well then why don't we go back to the cabin?" Axel suggested.

"Your cabin?" Roxas suspiciously inquired. That seemed a little fishy, and he certainly didn't want to get himself cornered in an enclosed space on unfamiliar territory with the redhead just yet.

"Nah, I don't have a key to our cabin." Axel told him, and Roxas threw him a look. "What? Larxene took my right to my own key away after I lost the fifth one in a row."

Rolling his eyes, Roxas stood, brushing his pants off. Axel took the hint that they were leaving, and packed up the tarp before clambering onto his snowmobile. Petal to the metal, he roared off with a backwards grin and thumbs up, leaving Roxas to floundering attempt to catch up to him.

Eventually they ended back at Riku's cabin, and Roxas let them in because unlikesome people, he was allowed to have his own set of keys.

"Wow." Axel appreciatively commented upon stepping in, drawing the word out to stress his awe. "This place is niiiiice. Is Riku's family like totally loaded or what?"

"I guess." Roxas replied with a shrug, toeing off his boots and hanging up his coat.

"WOAH!" Axel exclaimed, wandering into the living room. "I didn't even know they made TVs this big!"

"Well obviously they do." Roxas said, a little embarrassed by Axel's blatant ogling. "Do you want something to eat or something?"

"Food?" Axel responded, ambling back into the kitchen at the mention of sustenance.

After foraging around in the refrigerator and pantry for a bit, Axel and Roxas came up with some snacks to busy themselves with while they watched a movie on the bigscreen TV. Axel picked out some testosterone-packed dick-flick about street racing in Tokyo, and they settled back into the couch as the opening credits started up. The movie proved to be excruciatingly devoid of congruent plot and acting, so after a while Axel started doing a running commentary.

"…and okay so now what, right?" he was saying, shifting in his seat and throwing his arm over the back of the couch, not seeming to notice that doing so left it practically around Roxas's shoulders. "The chick realizes she genuinely likes Mr. Antagonist, but her psycho boyfriend who was hanging around with a bunch of whores just a couple scenes ago thinks he has a right to tell her who she can and can't hang around? I know this is supposed to be creating drama and all, but what the hell man? Does she not realize that she has alittle leverage in this argument?"

Roxas couldn't help but smirk at the evaluation. Axel was pretty witty and freaking hilarious when he wasn't paying attention to trying to be so. The redhead had a knack of being utterly side-splitting when he wasn't paying attention to the fact that he was being clever, but the moment he purposefully tried to get a laugh he came off as being completely annoying.

"Axel, you're ridiculous." Roxas evaluated, shaking his head and smirking.

"Recockulous!" Axel corrected, shaking a finger at Roxas. It took a minute for the blonde to get the joke, and when he did he punched Axel in the arm.

"You're also a pervert."

"But you loooove it." Axel smirked, getting his face right up in Roxas's, causing a serious breach of personal space.

"Che, you wish." Roxas shot back, looking away as a blush threatened to come over his cheeks.

"Maybe." Axel cheekily responded, winking. Argh, Roxas hated when people winked. "So besides watching vroom-vroom car movies, what is there to do around this swanky pad?"

Roxas lifted an eyebrow at him. "Vroom-vroom car movies? Swanky pad, Axel? Really?" God, the guy just got weirder and weirder every time he opened his mouth.

"Just callin' it like it is." Axel grinned back.

"Whatever you say." Roxas grumbled, leaning back into the couch and shaking his head.

"Hey remember that time we got lost in the wilderness?"

Roxas looked back to Axel with an irritatedly confused expression. "What do you mean 'do I remember?' Of course I remember! I was there! Lost! In the wilderness! With YOU. Not exactly easy to forget."

"I dunno." Axel replied with a shrug, tone light. "Just wondering. Cause I dunno, sometimes it seems like you try to push that whole trip out of your mind…"

The tone may have been light, but it was obvious that Axel was having a rare moment of discretion, and alluding to more than just forgetting about their little "up the creek without a paddle-esque" adventure.

"I didn't forget any of it." Roxas mumbled. He tried very hard to sound nothing but a little disgruntled, but his heart was hammering inside his chest. Oh God, were they really going to breach this topic? Was he even ready to talk about it?

"It was a fun trip though, huh?" Axel was murmuring, leaning closer.

Oh God, oh God, oh God. Roxas fought the urge to hyperventilate, but just barely. Axel was reeeaaaally close. Um. Um... UM UM UM!? What was he supposed to do? This was what he had wanted though, right? Time to reconnect and re-bond with Axel? SO why was he so nervous, now that everything had fallen into place? 'No, Roxas!' his brain sternly told him 'You have to be strong, you have to be brave, and you have to be confident! DO NOT BACK DOWN NOW OR YOU MAY MISS YOUR CHANCE FOREVER.'

"Yeah…" Roxas murmured, too embarrassed to look Axel in the face, even though those bright green eyes were mere inches away from his own. "Yeah, it was… nice."

"So then…" Axel breathed, leaning in.

"Uh… yeah…." Roxas whispered, unconsciously leaning in.

"HEY GUYS, ARE THOSE YOUR SNOW SKIDOOS OUT FRONT?"

Bolting to the opposite end of the couch, Roxas's eyes went wide and panicked. Sora bounced into the living room, full of energy as he stripped off his jacket. Riku followed him in, Hayner right after him, and with the sudden influx of people Roxas felt very trapped, and very caught in the act.

"Roxas, you alright?" Riku asked, looking him over.

"Uh, yeah." The blonde responded, voice shaky and cracking on the first syllable of the second word. He shifted his gaze sideways to glance at Axel, who was giving him a very strange look.

Oh crap.

Roxas did not like that look.

It was a look of mistrust, a look of hurt, and a look of confusion. Roxas pulling away and freaking out conveyed an "I am not okay with this situation, get away from me!" type of message, which was entirely opposite from what he had been trying to convey.

'No no no!' Roxas tried to convey with his eyes. 'I'm not ashamed of you, I was just surprised!'

But Axel stood up, expression unreadable. "Guess I'm gonna head back home then." He said.

'Axel, wait!' Roxas was internally screaming, but the words couldn't make it out of his throat for how thick and choked up it was feeling.

"Aww, you can stay!" Sora offered. "We can make an extra plate of dinner for you!"

"That's okay." Axel said, pulling on his coat. "I have to get the snowmobiles back anyways. You guys have a nice evening."

And then he was gone.

"Hey we should get snow skidoos tomorrow, Riku!" Sora chattered.

"No, they're expensive and dangerous." Riku firmly replied.

"I bet you could make a snowmobile if you attached a rocket to your sled." Hayner helpfully put in.

"No." Riku insisted, glaring at Hayner.

The three continued to bicker and whine lightheartedly at eachother, but Roxas heard none of it. Axel had left. He'd… he'd just walked out the door without so much as a backwards glance.

What a strange, ironic twist.

"Crap." Roxas muttered under his breath. "I really screwed up."

-o-

.x.x. .o.O.o. .x.x.

LOOKIE LOOKIE, another chapter! 8D

Oh ho ho, the drama continues! What will Roxas do now? What is Axel really thinking? Why is Riku so mysterious and sexy? Is Sora capable of being a normal, sane, not-idiot for even two seconds? XD Possibly some of these answers and a crapload more… NEXT CHAPTER!

In other news: Um, holy crap? Buckets of reviews, and I even got a few pieces of FANART WTF. I love you guys so hardcore. Seriously. Make babies with me. Except not really. Just keep being freaking AWESOME, okay?

Seeya next chapter!